Bird Watching

Learn to identify your backyard birds!  This is something that you can do with the whole family! Take the time to notice nature - learn to recognize the birds that visit your area. Kids love to do this! Read our article below; it will tell you how to get started. You'll want to pick up a few books to help you identify birds.  Amazon.com is a great place to buy books, and they have a good selection of books on Birding.  Have a look at the books below.  If you don't see one that interests you, just click on the Amazon logo and search for more.

Learning Birds in Half an Hour by Laura Obiso   9/2/07 To a beginning birder, having the ability to identify hundreds of bird species in the blink of an eye seems like nothing short of sheer genius. How can you possibly pick an individual species out of a flock of brown-striped sparrows that all look the same? How do you identify a bird when all you see is a silhouette against the clouds, or a streak of feathers zipping past your head? How can you distinguish one species from another as you watch dozens of little shorebirds running up and down the beach? Beginning birders usually purchase a field guide, find some birds to watch, and then frantically try to match them up with birds in the book. While they are switching between finding the bird in their binoculars and flipping pages in the field guide searching for a match, the bird flies away, unidentified, leaving behind a frustrated watcher. There's an easier way. First, relax. Learning to identify birds is no more difficult than learning to identify anything else you see. How do you know a cocker spaniel from a collie? A lion from a house cat? Think about what happens when you are introduced to a person you have never seen before. Your mind immediately begins to take notes about the physical appearance of the person before you: size, shape, form, color of eyes, skin, hair, unique features, dress, and so forth. As you engage in conversation, you are aware of the person's voice, manner of speech, command of the language, gestures, and "body language" - all without consciously thinking about it. Individual details will instantly coalesce, and you will remember (the face, if not the name) and recognize this person as someone you have seen and talked to before. The same mental process of recognition takes place when you attempt to identify birds. Birds, like people, display certain physical traits that separate them from others of their kind. The same details of size, shape, form, color, body language, voice, and movement will also come together to form a distinctive picture of a particular bird. Once you have learned what to look for, and trained your mind to recognize, the rest comes easily. Immerse Yourself in Birds The trick to becoming a better birder starts in the pages of a couple of good reference books, field guides, and internet search results. A half an hour of immersion will pay off later when you actually go into the field in search of living birds. Think about it. Children learn to read by first learning the alphabet one letter at a time - looking at pictures, seeing the letter over and over in different forms. After a while, the letters are put together to form simple words. Reading follows. This should be your approach to learning to identify birds. Half an hour of total immersion in your subject - and by this I mean one species - will surprise you with how quickly you will progress to recognizing birds in the field. There are a lot of birds out there, so the first step is to obtain a list of the species you are most likely see. Your local Audubon chapter, nature center, or even an online search should be able to provide you with a few dozen of the most common backyard birds for your area. Don't forget to include the season you will begin watching in your search. Most birds migrate, and the species will change, especially in the spring and fall. The appearance of some species will change also, depending on the season. It's best to start with common breeding birds, or common winter residents. Once you have your list of common birds, locate them in your field guide and reference materials. Choose only one species for each half-hour session. If you spend one half-hour on a different bird every day, in one month's time you will be able to recognize 30 birds! This should be fun, not stressful. Start a study journal, and take notes. Sketch the bird (not a work of art, just a rough sketch for your notes). Don't try to memorize everything you're seeing and reading, just enjoy the experience. Your subconscious mind is learning to recognize the birds. The AHA! Moment If you have immersed yourself in your bird research - remember, a half an hour per species should be enough - something surprising is going to happen. The next time you see one of those common birds, you're going to know what you're looking at. Instead of seeing that brown and rust-colored bird on the neighbor's lawn, you're going to say "Aha! There's an American robin!" The method outlined here is aimed at the purely novice birder, but more experienced birders can use the same technique for learning the finer details of any species. But be careful, this method is contagious. There are plants, mushrooms, trees, wildflowers and animals - just waiting for recognition! Comments

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