Apply for Classroom Funding

Doris Waud with a Black-capped Chickadee that had just been banded in her yard by her husband John Waud, licensed bird bander and retired ecology professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. Photo by John Waud.

Thanks to a generous gift from the family of FeederWatch participant John Waud, in honor of his late wife Doris Waud, 50 schools a year will be able to participate in Project FeederWatch without a participation fee. Doris, a long-time public school teacher, was actively involved in the creation of Classroom FeederWatch at the Cornell Lab. That project has since evolved into BirdSleuth and now K-12 Education. Doris lost her battle with cancer and her family wanted to honor her with a gift that would allow schools to participate in the project Doris loved and helped bring into so many classrooms.

Applications for the 2025-26 season are now closed, but if you are teaching in the U.S. and would like to sign up, you may use the coupon code PFWEDU in our online store to receive a $5 discount on the registration fee. Please check this page again next spring to apply for full funding for the 2026-27 FeederWatch season. The application period typically runs from late spring to mid-summer, and you need only provide your contact information and a few details about how you intend to use FeederWatch in your classroom. We select at least 50 schools every year to participate for free. Funding recipients are asked to share stories and ideas, some of which we will post on the FeederWatch blog to give other teachers ideas about how to put FeederWatch to use in the classroom. We hope you enjoy this opportunity, and we look forward to hearing about your students’ FeederWatch experiences.