The Bird Conservation Network and the Chicago Department of the Environment have partnered to create the Chicago Region Birding Trail Guide. This pocket guide covers the seven Illinois counties surrounding Chicago and the two north-west Indiana counties along Lake Michigan.

The guide is available at tourist brochure racks and at the birding sites. 
An online version is available here in PDF format (1.6MB);
print all or only the pages you need.
("Get Adobe® Reader®" to view this file)

Request a print copy from the City of Chicago by calling 312-743-9283.

This guide offers just the highlights of birding in the Chicago region. For more thorough information about birding in the Chicago area, we recommend you pick up Birder's Guide to the Chicago Region by Lynne Carpenter and Joel Greenberg (Northern Illinois University Press 1999). For information on birding throughout the state, use Birding Illinois by Sheryl DeVore (Falcon Publishing 2000).