About the Amos W. Butler Audubon Society

The Amos W. Butler Audubon Society was first established in 1938 as the Indiana Audubon Society Amos W. Butler District. In 1952 the name was changed in conjunction with the Board's decision to officially became a grassroots chapter of the the National Audubon Society. If you are wondering who Amos W. Butler was, he was a man widely considered to be Indiana's greatest naturalist. Among his many accomplishments, in 1890 Amos Butler published The Birds of Indiana, the first book of its kind for the state.

The mission of the Amos W. Butler Audubon Society is "To promote the enjoyment and stewardship of birds in Central Indiana". We do this by:

• Hosting monthly educational meetings with presentations on a wide variety of topics
• Offering field trips throughout the state and beyond
• Monitoring and addressing issues in Indiana that involve birds and their habitat partnering with other organizations to protect and preserve birds and their habitats.

Our chapter covers Indianapolis that is Marion County and all of the surrounding counties including Boone, Hendricks, Hamilton, Hancock, Johnson, and Shelby Counties.

Amos W. Butler Audubon has a long and successful history of championing the cause of birds in central Indiana. Some of the recent Amos W. Butler Audubon Society accomplishments include assisting in the purchase and preservation of the largest rookery of Great Blue Herons in Indiana. Now called the Millard Sutton/ Amos Butler Audubon Sanctuary, AWBAS was a major financial contributor toward the purchase of the 76 acres of wooded land along an oxbow of the White River in Johnson County, south of Indianapolis. Approximately 500 active nests were counted at this site in a 1998 study.

More recently AWBAS assisted in the purchase and preservation of Burr Oak Bend, a 120-acre site along the White River in Hamilton County, north of Indianapolis. The site is an extensive intact forested riparian corridor along a high quality stretch of the White River. It is being restored from an agricultural field to 31.5 acres of mixed hardwood forest and 12.5 acres of prairie.

As a 501C-3 non-profit organization, our primary fundraising efforts take place during our annual Birdathon Event in the Springtime. AWBAS has had great success with this event and has been frequently recognized as one of the nations top 10 fundraisers. This consistent achievement is largely the fruit of the notable commitment and work done by the long-time Birdathon Chairperson Donna McCarty.

To view a list of current Officers and Directors of the Amos W. Butler Audubon Society, click here.

To read our 2009 Annual Update (PDF format), click here.

To learn about Audubon's Important Bird Areas Program, especially our Indiana program, click here.

To read the History of the Amos W. Butler Audubon Society, by Charles Keller, click here.

To read Common Birds of Indiana (1945), by Earl Brooks (PDF format), click here.

To read the Breeding Birds of Eagle Creek Park - Summer 2006, by James Cole (PDF format), click here.

To read about Sassafras Audubon's Birding Guide to South-Central Indiana, click here.

To read the IDNS's Rare and Endangered Animals of Indiana, click here.