It’s never too late to start learning birds... and you’ll never do it long enough to run out of things to learn.
Of course, you don’t need to know a thing about birds to enjoy them. It’s entirely possible to just appreciate birds for the splash of color, song and general distraction. But the sight of a hovering hummingbird, a murmuration in an open field or a woodpecker banging its head against a tree often leads to questions — who are those birds? why would they do that? how do they do that?
I’m hoping that regulars — old and new — will add things that they found helpful in their avian education. I have benefited greatly from (many!) others who shared their knowledge, and hopefully we can help others boost their skills.
First and foremost, there’s no substitute for experience. You don’t need to make a special trip — you can learn a lot by looking around your yard or when you’re out doing other stuff. That’s how you learn the common birds and get to know them well. Once you learn your backyard sparrows, say, you’ll recognize when something is not the usual suspect. Once you get to know the song of a robin or a house finch, you’ll know when you’re hearing something different. No bird is too common to watch — we can learn a lot from pigeons. If there’s a bird around, watch it.
Listen! Birdwatching is a thing, sure. But seeing the birds can be much easier if you let them tell you where to look. Chittering warblers in the treetops or deep in the bushes; cheeping sparrows below the brush or at the edge of the path, nuthatches, creepers and woodpeckers hugging branches and trunks, hawks aloft (or jays imitating them from deep in a tree). Voice can tell you a lot, and for some birds it’s really the only way to tell who’s who reliably. (looking at you Empidonax!)
And besides — some of those voices are just plain beautiful. Thrushes and wrens are among the plainest looking birds, but their songs are so very very musical.
Optics — You can see and hear birds with just your eyes and ears, no question. If you’re starting to find you have a stronger interest, you may be ready to add some optics. I can’t tell you what’s best for you because a lot is dependent on your interests (e.g. hawks vs. warblers vs. shorebirds). There are tradeoffs between field of view, magnification and size/weight among other things.
Two things before you commit — figure out your budget, and don’t be shy about asking around. There are good binoculars in every price range, but in the low- to mid-range a slight stretch in your budget can give a noticeable improvement. The extra $$ buys you things like coatings that improve performance in low light (this isn’t just about owls — think of looking for skulky little birds deep in a forest), lighter weight, better armoring, closer focus. Once you’ve figured out a few models in your price range, watch for people using them and ask their opinion. (I guarantee you, they’ll have one.) You will hear the good and the bad, and can decide if any of the bad aspects are deal-breakers. Many birders will let you try their binos, which helps you test them in field conditions.
Okay, now that you can see them, how do you tell them apart?
If you can get a good look at the bird (and again, listening can help you find it) try to get a good look at the bill. That was probably the most useful advice I ever got as a beginning birder — the bill shape tells you a lot about what the bird eats and how it feeds, and that helps you figure out which family it’s in. Bill length can be important for separating some closely related species; compare the bill length to the overall head size, for example.
Another way bill shape is helpful is that once you have an idea of the family, you have a better sense of which other characteristics are important to study. Once you’ve established whether you’re looking at a gull vs. a tern, then you know which aspects are most important to get to the species.
Wing and tail length/shape can tell you a lot; the relative length of wings to tails on perched birds is helpful in separating many species. In flight, long narrow wings suggest different flight styles than shorter, rounder wings. (That’s not foolproof of course — albatrosses have insanely long narrow wings and buteos have broad flat wings, and they are both known for soaring for a long time without flapping. But I digress...)
Oh, and wing bars. Pay attention to those if present.
Behavior can give you a lot of clues — is it on the ground? Skulking deep in foliage or flitting around the treetops? Does it repeatedly fly out from, and return to, the same perch? Is it tapping on the wood or is it sending splinters flying everywhere?
Color can be useful but it can also be a distraction. For example, there are a surprising number of yellow birds. Like, a lot. Yellow is going to narrow it down a little bit (not much yellow on seabirds, for example). But to truly help with the ID, make careful note of where the color is. Not just yellow on the breast or the head, but how much yellow and where.
Size can be helpful but can also be very tricky. It’s difficult to get a sense of the size of birds in flight, but if you can compare them to a something of a known size, that can be a huge help (no pun intended). It can be a matter of comparing it to other birds around it (as above) or to familiar objects like the fence post or power pole it’s perching on.
Hang out with friends. Birding can be a wonderful, calming solitary activity. It can also be a good excuse to get together with friends and spend a day outdoors someplace great. (most of these photos were taken while birding with friends over the past few weekends.) In all likelihood, you’ll have different strengths and weaknesses as birders; you can learn from each other in a low key way. With a big enough circle of friends, you’ll probably even know one who’s patient with gull ID or empids.
Don’t have any birder friends? Join an Audubon walk or other bird activity. It’s another great way to learn without pressure You’ll meet people who share that interest, and discover which other interests you share. Almost all of my close friends (some going back 30 years!) are people I met through birding.
Keep a notebook. Get in the habit of carrying a notebook, and use it. No pressure — maybe you just keep a list of what you saw on a given day. But great it’s to jot some quick notes when you see something you don’t recognize — describe behavior, who it’s hanging out with, any features that made you think it was something different. Make some field sketches; don’t get hung up on making great art — really simple drawings that show the high points are all you need. My example to the right shows a fulmar (top right) another fulmar (I think — it’s been a while) and a color banded raven.
Use eBird. Lists are fun. Putting your sightings to work for science makes ‘em better still. This year I’m seriously trying to do it more often. The problem is that all my friends are very good eBirders, so it has been very easy to just have them copy their lists to me. I’m starting with my backyard to get in the habit of doing it more consistently.
Take photos and study them I take a lot of photos, but as you can see I don’t take great photos. Sometimes I try for fab pictures, but a lot of times I’m just capturing a memory of a place and time (and bird), and quite often I just want to document habitat or details of plumage. So there are a lot of scenic shots with a (small) bird or insanely zoomed photos of tail patterns or something. I have gotten pretty proficient at digiscoping, and reasonably good at grabbing a shot through binoculars. You’re not going to create great art that way (usually) but you can help yourself learn.
Get involved. Birds (and all wildlife) can use our help. Monitoring populations is a big help, and there are many ways to do it: Christmas Counts, FeederWatch, local hawkwatches, beachwatches and waterfowl counts, and reporting banded/marked birds. Other activities could include helping at rehab centers, introducing people to wildlife as a docent, fundraising and letter-writing on behalf of the environment — it all makes a difference. You’ll learn a lot, and you’re likely to meet great people.
HOW COULD I FORGET?? Pandala reminds us of the importance of field guides.
If you’re an experienced birder, what advice would you give to someone who’s just starting out?
If you’re relatively new to birding, what have you found helpful?