It publishes articles on identification, distribution, migration, conservation and taxonomy, apart from reports of significant ornithological sightings and events.

[1] In 2006, the Bugun liocichla, a new bird species from Arunachal Pradesh was described by Ramana Athreya in this journal.

[2] The description of the bird carried in the journal was made without the collection of a type specimen as they were too few to risk killing one.

[3] Though this practice was not unprecedented, with four prior instances,[4] the pure charisma of the bird together with this practice created a controversy in the scientific and conservation community on the costs and benefits of this approach[4][5] The journal has published 683 articles[6] in its first eight volumes.

Zafar Futehally, who founded Newsletter for Birdwatchers in 1960, served as editor emeritus until his death in 2013.