Nesting Season is On! Is Your Bird House Ready?

Shop Small

Please support your favorite small businesses with your patronage this holiday season. (And throughout the year, too!)


Shopping local, small businesses in your own backyard, benefits your entire community.


Gifts for All Ages in Every Budget

The Backyard Naturalist has nature-themed gifts for all ages in every budget. Stop in and see what's new!

Area’s Best Rocks & Mineral Selection

Rock, Mineral, Crystal & Fossil Specimens. . . we have the area's best selection outside the Smithsonian Gift Shop!
And we've just added more.

Fair Trade from Around the World

A sample of our unique gifts:
Seaglass & Driftwood Wind Chimes from Bali
Haitian Metal Folk Art
Handmade Baskets and Trivets from Rwanda & Uganda
And so many more!

For Local Sports Fans

Redskins, Ravens, Capitals, Nationals and Orioles!!! We have officially licensed flags, mini-flags and doormats.

Celebrating Our 30th Year

The Backyard Naturalist is the area’s largest and oldest independent retailer of products for wild birds and gifts for nature lovers of all ages! Proudly serving Maryland and the Washington, DC metro area for thirty years.

We are Maryland's first and only store to be awarded Droll Yankees' Five Feather Platinum Premier dealer status.

We take care of our feathered friends’ needs year-round:

The BYN on Facebook

From The Backyard Blog

  • The Backyard Naturalist has tips on choosing, placing and maintaining bird houses and nesting boxes.Nesting Season is ON!
    Do you have your bird house up? It’s time to get your bird houses / nesting boxes ready for new families. Clear out any old nest debris and check to see if the interior could benefit from a quick scrub with some mild soap and warm water. (Rinse well!) Not sure what kind of bird house to get? …

The Backyard Blog Archive

‘Best Of’ Montgomery

Thank you for voting us ‘Best Of’
MoCo’s Best Gift Shop
Montgomery County, Maryland!!!

Visit Us or Call

The Backyard Naturalist
17910 Georgia Avenue
Olney MD 20832
See the map.

Contact Us:
(301) 924-0024

Email us at thebyn@gmail.com
but phone calls still work best!

Hours:
Mon-Sat 10-6 | Sun 12-5

Convenient free parking directly behind the store.

Flock with Us

View our YouTube channel See photos on Flickr

Or subscribe to our email updates:

Our emails are rare birds and fly in as seasonal reminders carrying noteworthy information. We promise their chicks will never hatch in your InBox.

Our mailing list NEVER migrates, so your info stays private.

Our Mission

For almost 30 years, we've had the same mission:
To inspire our community to appreciate and nurture the nature found in all our backyards by providing a sanctuary of food, water and shelter for wild birds.

Each of our backyard habitats contributes to the health and well-being of not only the individual visitors to our feeders and baths, but is also one more piece of habitat restored and connected to Migratory Flyways. As green space increasingly disappears due to development, our backyard micro habitats link together, backyard by backyard, across our county – our state – our country.