Holiday Gift Guide for People and Birds!

Looking for meaningful holiday gifts for your favorite people that save songbirds too?

We share some of our favorites below. They’re special offerings from business partners whose donations and wholesale pricing have made it possible for SOS Save Our Songbirds to bring native plants, window treatments and bird-friendly coffee and chocolate to over 20,000 Wisconsinites in the last two years.

While SOS is not offering a holiday gift box this year, we are extending our Thanksgiving match and bird-friendly chocolate gift offer until Dec. 15. Your donation is DOUBLED and you get a luxury Bird Friendly® certified dark chocolate bar as our thanks. Enjoy it yourself or pass on some holiday cheer to family or friends. Learn more

Bird friendly coffee to brew cheer

Scarlet Tanager. Photo: Ryan Brady

Perk up their day and protect the winter habitats of Scarlet Tanagers, Baltimore Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and other favorite migratory songbirds when you buy Smithsonian Bird Friendly® certified coffee.

These coffees are grown on farms that are 100% organic and preserve native trees providing shelter and insects for birds. Most coffee is grown on farms that have clear cut rainforest and use pesticides to grow coffee faster in the sun. So give the coffee drinker in your life a brew that’s better for them, for the farmers, and for our birds!

Try one of the Bird Friendly® certified roasts from Barnwood Coffee Company in Two Rivers or from longtime East Coast roaster Birds & Beans Coffee, which sells exclusively Bird Friendly® and Fair Trade certified roasts and also offers subscriptions. Or take advantage of those companies’ special holiday offerings below.

Barnwood Coffee gift boxes. A 16-ounce bag with your choice of Bird Friendly® roast, Wisconsin-made coffee mug or campfire mug, and handcrafted metal barn swallow ornament. In a custom box with a locally made candy cane. See holiday box and other offerings.

Barnwood’s special winter Bird Friendly® roast, Snow Bird. This dark roasted coffee has a mellow, candy-like sweetness paired with notes of cocoa and mild fruit flavors. Available in a 16 ounce bag while supplies last.

Birds & Beans Coffee Holiday Deal

Now through Dec. 18, 2025, get 30% off an assorted case of 12, 12-ounce Birds & Beans Coffee, whole bean or ground. Snap up this special holiday deal and get coffee for yourself and gifts for others. Every roast Birds & Beans sells are Smithsonian certified Bird Friendly®, 100% organic and Fair-Trade certified too!

Dark chocolate to savor & save birds

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s Bird Friendly Program got even sweeter in late 2023 when they rolled out a certification for cacao farms. Three U.S. artisan chocolatiers offer limited selections made with cacao from Zorzal Cacao, a bird sanctuary in the Dominican Republic and the world’s first farm to receive this new certification. Enjoy their mouth-watering Bird Friendly® and other holiday selections and enjoy free or reduced shipping.

Dandelion Chocolate in San Franciso offers a 70% bar from Zorzal, or includes it as one selection in a trio of elegantly wrapped bars.

French Broad Chocolate in Asheville, N.C. offers a 70% Dominican Republic Dark Chocolate bar in two different sizes, and as single bars or in a three pack. Plus new customers take 10% off. See offerings.

Raaka Chocolate of Brooklyn, N.Y. offers a larger selection of Bird-Friendly certified chocolates than the other two. Enjoy delicious dark chocolate bars, dark baking chocolate, hot chocolate and more.

Gift cards to headstart ‘26 gardening

Ruby-throated Hummingbird collects nectar from a native Cardinal Flower. Photo: Ryan Brady

Habitat loss is the biggest reason why nearly 30% of North American birds have vanished since 1970. We can all add habitat for birds by planting a few native plants in our yard or in pots on our porch or balcony. Native plants provide far more food for birds than nonnative ornamentals, importantly, the caterpillars songbirds need to feed their young. These partner nurseries make it easy to feed birds and the passion of your favorite gardener!

Johnson’s Nursery in Menomonee Falls offers gift cards for purchase online or at their retail location, W180N6275 Marcy Road in Menomonee Falls.

Prairie Nursery eGift Cards are 10% off through Sunday, Dec. 7, and the company opens its pre-orders in a week! E-Gift cards are sent to your recipient via email, or you may send it to your own email address. If you prefer to mail a printed gift card, you can call them at 1-800-476-9453. Prairie Nursery ships all of its native plants.

White Pelican Farm in Wyocena offers 15% off gift certificates. Enter: “SOS Member” at checkout to get 15% off your purchase. E-gift certificates can be sent to your recipient via email or to your own email address. The nursery also keeps track of who purchases the cards so the buyer can receive the 15% discount as well when they order plants themselves.

Bird and native plant expert Mariette Nowak’s latest book.

 New local bird books to inspire

Wisconsin native plant and bird expert Mariette Nowak brings us Birdscaping for Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region: The 50 Best Native Plants to Attract Birds to your Midwestern Garden. University of Wisconsin Press. Available in local stores and online.

Birds of the Great Lakes is an easy-to-use book from Dexter Patterson, co-founder of Wisconsin's BIPOC Birding Club and well-known online as the “Wisco Birder” for his photography, video and podcasts. Find in local bookstores or online.

Window treatments to save birds

Feather Friendly is offering an extra value of 25% to gift cards for their window treatment products through Dec. 31, 2025.

Give a gift certificate for Acopian BirdSavers to prevent birds hitting windows. Attach this parachute cord curtain to exterior window frame.