Bird Watcher's Digest

BWD was launched in Marietta, Ohio by William and Elsa Thompson.

[1] Knowing very little about publishing, the Thompsons mailed out 32,000 copies of their first magazine in September 1978.

In 1994, Bill Thompson, Jr., left BWD to become vice president of his alma mater, Marietta College.

The company published a bimonthly newsletter (Backyard Bird Newsletter) and expanded into other bird-watching products, books and booklets, including the Bird Watcher's Digest Original Birdhouse Book (1979).

Many well-known individuals in the birding community wrote for Bird Watcher's Digest, such as former president Jimmy Carter, Roger Tory Peterson, David Allen Sibley, Kenn Kaufman, Betty White, Eirik A. T. Blom, Julie Zickefoose, David Bird and Scott Shalaway.