[3] Stanwood was the first of five children born to parents who were a wealthy merchant's daughter and a sea captain in Ellsworth, Maine.

Unable to find employment in Boston following graduation, she returned to Providence, Rhode Island, to resume teaching.

She had opportunities to work with trained scientists, and she learned to combine the use of art and illustration in scientific observation, a skill that became instrumental in her career as an ornithologist.

As she recovered, Stanwood returned to her family home in Ellsworth, Maine, without resuming her teaching career.

As her scientific observations developed, Stanwood corresponded with leading naturalists of the time, including John Burroughs and Frank Chapman.

As she desired to be financially able to provide for herself, she thereby carried out various farm chores and selling her homemade crafts to earn an income.

[2] In 1910, Stanwood published her first ornithological study entitled, "The Hermit Thrush: the Voice of the Northern Woods.

"[6] Her photography career started in 1916, and the American Ornithologist's Union presented her portrait in the Library of Congress in 1934.

[5] Stanwood's 200 acre (81 hectares) homestead in Ellsworth became the Birdsacre Sanctuary and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

[5][8] She successfully lobbied the Maine State Legislature to ban the importation of bird feathers for women's hats.

[9] While editor of the ornithological journal The Auk, Witmer Stone wrote in 1916 of Stanwood's investigations: "Numerous sketches of birds and their nesting activities have appeared during the last few years from the pen of Miss Stanwood, all of them evidently based upon careful study and written in a style that is pleasing and yet serious enough to suit the importance of many of the facts that are recorded.