Lazy birdwatchers will be excited to hear that they no longer have to venture into the great outdoors to indulge in their favourite pastime, as a new campaign from the National Audubon Society in the US releases a series of digital birds across the net.

The campaign, created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, works in a similar way to Poke's Balloonacy campaign for Orange, but this time birds are released unexpectedly across websites, where they fly elegantly by, occasionally stopping to perch on a masthead (a flock of pelicans flying over The New York Times home page is shown above).

Gulls on Slate

The campaign aims to draw attention to the National Audubon Society, whose mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosytems, focusing on birds and other wildlife. The game operates through a Facebook app, which encourages users to compete with friends online to spot the birds in order to win prizes. Clues of where the birds will pop up next are also appearing on two Twitter streams, @FloridaScrubJay and @RufHummingbird.

The campaign will run until November 7. To see non-live examples of the birds on websites, click here for The New York Times or here for Slate. There is also a little bird on this site (this one's more subtle). More info on the National Audubon Society is at audubon.org.