You can print a bird life list in five ways: print eBird's Life List page from your browser, print a spreadsheet of your eBird download, copy it onto a free printable, write it in a journal, or have it bound as a book. The first three cost only paper and ink; a journal costs about $20; a book costs more.
Here's what each one costs, how much work it is, and what you end up with.
Key facts
- eBird's help describes your Life List as the total number of species "that you've ever reported to eBird", and lets you filter it by place, date or species (My eBird help, updated March 28, 2025).
- The eBird help pages we read describe viewing, sorting and downloading your lists. They don't describe printing a list, or a printed book.
- Download My Data, in My eBird, gives you a spreadsheet of all your personal eBird records.
- Any web page can be printed from the browser. In Chrome it's Ctrl+P on Windows or ⌘+P on a Mac, with a "Save as PDF" option.
- Two well-known write-in journals: the Cornell Lab's Birder's Life List & Journal ($19.95, paperback) and The Sibley Birder's Life List and Field Diary ($22 list price, paperback).
Facts checked: September 30, 2026.
The five ways at a glance
| Way | Cost | Effort | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| eBird's Life List page, printed from your browser | Free | Low: a few minutes | eBird's list as it appears on screen, on plain paper |
| A spreadsheet of your download | Free | Medium: tidy the file first | A plain table, sorted and trimmed your way |
| Our free printable life list | Free | High: you write in every bird | Lined pages for species, date, place and notes |
| A write-in journal | About $20 | High: you write in every bird | A bound paperback in your own handwriting |
| A book printed from your records (Birdfolio, ours) | $79 to $129, US shipping included | Low: add your file, check the preview | A hardcover with a picture, the date and the place for every species |
1. Print your Life List page from eBird (free)
If you keep your list in eBird, it already has a life list for you. Steps 2 to 4 come from eBird's own help page:
- Sign in to eBird on a computer and open My eBird.
- Click your total number of species, or Sightings Lists in the Manage tools, to see every species you've reported.
- To narrow it down, use the globe, calendar or bird icons. They filter the list by place, date or species.
- Click a column heading, such as Date or Location, to sort by that column.
- Print with your browser's own Print command (Ctrl+P on Windows, ⌘+P on a Mac). Choose "Save as PDF" if you'd like a file instead.
Step 5 isn't from eBird: its help doesn't describe printing, and we haven't tested how the page looks on paper. Check the print preview before you print.
Good for: a quick copy today. Less good for: a keepsake. It's a plain list with no pictures, and a long list runs to many pages.
2. Print a spreadsheet of your download (free)
In My eBird, Download My Data gives you a spreadsheet of every record you've submitted. Our guide shows each screen: how to download your eBird data.
The file, MyEBirdData.csv, has a row for every species on every checklist, so a bird you see often appears many times. To turn it into a life list:
- Open a copy of the file in Excel or Google Sheets.
- Sort by date, oldest first.
- Remove duplicates using the species name column only. Microsoft says Excel keeps the first of each, which after sorting is your first sighting.
- Hide the columns you don't need, then print.
Our guide to turning a list into a spreadsheet walks through the sorting in more detail.
Only want part of your list, such as one state or one year? eBird's Sightings Lists page has a Download button for just the records you've filtered.
Good for: anyone comfortable with spreadsheets. The file doubles as your backup: here's how to back up your birding records.
3. Our free printable life list (free)
If you'd rather write it by hand, print our life list at home. It's two US Letter pages: 28 numbered lines on the first, and a second page of 30 lines that you can print as often as you need. Each line has room for the species, the date, the place and a note. There's no sign-up.
Download the printable life list (PDF). A year-list version is on our guide, what is a life list?
Good for: someone who likes pen and paper, or a new birder starting out.
4. A write-in journal (about $20)
A life-list journal is a bound book you fill in by hand. Two well-known ones:
- Birder's Life List & Journal, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Princeton University Press, 2019): a 264-page paperback, $19.95 at Annie Bloom's Books.
- The Sibley Birder's Life List and Field Diary (2017): a 304-page paperback, $22 list price at Penguin Random House. It has entries for 923 species of the US and Canada, with room for where and when you saw each one.
Prices were checked on September 30, 2026, and may change.
Good for: someone who enjoys writing things down. If you enjoy writing by hand, a journal is the better gift.
5. A book printed from your records (Birdfolio, ours)
This one is ours, so we'll keep it short. Birdfolio reads your eBird download, an iNaturalist export or a typed list, and prints a hardcover book, 8.5 × 11 inches. Every species on your list gets a classic painting or a credited photo (about 7 in 10 are paintings), with the date and place you first saw it. The book also marks your milestones, maps the places you've birded and ends with an index.
- Prices: $79 for lists up to 300 species, $99 up to 1,000, and $129 above that, US shipping included. Express shipping is $30 more.
- Orders open November 1, 2026, for US addresses only.
- Delivery: Standard shipping usually takes about 2 to 3 weeks from your order, or about 3 to 4 weeks in November and December.
- You see a free preview of your book before you pay, and you don't need an account.
Good for: a keepsake or a gift for someone with years of records. Less good for: a list that changes every week. A book is a snapshot of your list on the day you make it.
Page through a Birdfolio, or see your own list as a book.
Which should you choose?
- Want it on paper today, for free? Print eBird's Life List page, or your spreadsheet.
- Enjoy writing by hand? Use our free printable, or buy a journal.
- Want a keepsake with pictures, or a gift for a longtime birder? A printed book.
Whatever you choose, keep your data file too. Paper is a lovely copy, but the file is what you keep adding to.
What about a poster? When we searched in September 2026, we also found free tools and small shops that turn a life list into a poster. We haven't tried them, so we don't name or compare them here.
Does eBird print a book of your life list?
Not that we found. eBird's help pages describe viewing, sorting and downloading your lists, and none of the pages we read mentions a printed book. We checked on September 30, 2026.
Birdfolio is not affiliated with eBird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology or iNaturalist.