Tips and Tricks for Birders

Recently, a group of SIB members were discussing some ideas to help improve our birding skills, and the more we talked about it, the longer our list became. So we decided to write a blog and share our tips with our fellow birders. There are so many good ideas that we can split them into two blogs!

These tips are a gold mine of information for the new birder, and excellent reminders (and probably some new “ah-hah!” moments) for those who’ve been birding for a year, or ten years!

The most important features of birding are its fun, it can be done anywhere in the world, and you don’t need to be an expert. If you’re brand new to birding, or you’ve been birding for a couple of years, there are lots of ways to increase your skills and enhance your experience, so let’s get started!

Binoculars

Jen Jerome suggests getting a good pair of binoculars. Bob Mercer recommends buying the highest quality you can afford. A high quality pair can last a lifetime. A cheap pair will wear out, but can be a good starter.

Bob suggests when buying optics, do not get tricked into buying something too powerful or too small. The number on a pair of binoculars indicates the magnification and the width of the large lens in millimeters. Examples include 7×35 or 8×40. There is a sweet spot in size where you divide the magnification by the lens, and you want to be near 5, as in these two examples. Recognize
that the higher your magnification (the first number), the more everything, including your body motion, is magnified. Binoculars that are too small will be difficult for finding the birds.

Once you have the pair you want, spend time making sure your binoculars are set for your eyes and remember the setting so you can adjust as needed. Before each outing, make sure your equipment is clean and packed. Bob says he can remember the number of times he showed up and the binoculars
were not with him.

Bob also encourages people to practice lifting their binoculars to their eyes in such a way that the desired object is right where you want it. Do this before you start looking for birds—they move!

Jen Jerome also found that taking pictures is a great way to learn. A picture, even a poor quality one, allows you to study the field marks at your leisure. A bird may be in sight only a couple of seconds, giving you a brief window of observation.

Field Guides

Eileen Mercer suggests you “keep studying the bird books, articles and apps.” Purchase at least one good field guide. These can be paper or digital and best to have each type. Most field guides are arranged in taxonomic order. Spend your free time studying your guide(s). Know how to search for things before you get out in the field. Note shape, size, and behavior.

Judy Morr also recommends studying the habitat of the birds you’re hoping to see as that will help you know where to look. Do they forage up high or down low, near the ground? In brush and bushes, or up in trees? Do they feed on the ground? Knowing where to start looking is very helpful.

Bob Mercer suggests you purchase two duplicate books. One to take in the field and one to keep safe at home. Go through the one for the field and make notations as to the key field marks. The original field guides by Roger Tory Peterson used lines to point to the most obvious field mark. New books have far surpassed the Peterson Series in identification tips, but do not include the
lines. Create your own. The second book is where you keep your life list and other records. More on that later.

Melanie Jerome recommends that as you study the birds in your books or apps, pay attention to not just color and shape, but look at the beak also, as it tells a lot about a bird.

Two resources to help you predict what you can expect to see on your outing are ebird and Birdseye apps. Judy Morr finds these two resources invaluable in helping her prepare for an outing.

In The Field

Aija Konrad and many other SIB members recommend going on as many guided bird walks as you can. Let those who are more knowledgeable help you. Ask questions, don’t reinvent the wheel! Keep a list and when you return home go back through the list and double check what you saw to refresh your memory as to the characteristics of the various birds.

Joleen Ardaiola encourages people to find at least one other person to bird with. “The other person you bird with doesn’t always have to be an expert (even though you learn a lot that way too), but someone who is interested in taking the time with you to figure out what the bird is. I think you learn better if you’re not immediately told what the identity of the bird is.” This is why SIB has “Learning Together” activities. Even the “experts” are constantly learning new things.

Bob Mercer learned the hard way that when you look for those small birds, as you lift your binoculars up, don’t look for the bird. Look for a pattern in the branches or something distinctive in the vicinity of the bird. Birds fly, and frequently they fly in that brief moment as the binoculars block your
view. If you find the pattern and no bird is there, you can stop wasting time looking.

Bob also suggests that people use their ears, not just their eyes. You can hear things that are invisible. Field experience is the best way to learn bird sounds. He recommends the Merlin app. It uses AI to identify sounds. It is FAR from infallible, do not assume Merlin is always right. For example, Northern Mockingbirds skillfully mimic the sounds of other birds. Merlin can tell you
what to look for. Once you make a Merlin recording, keep it. Once back home, go through your recordings and listen again for the bird. Click on the bird’s name and it will give you a whole bunch of sounds that bird makes. Pick out the sound you heard in the field. This is a GREAT way to learn bird sounds.

Bob also encourages everyone to start a life list. This is a list of each bird you identified for the first time. Mark down the date and location in both of your books, the one in the field and the one that never goes out in the field. If you get serious, you will want to keep the list in multiple locations as a failsafe. Bob Mercer painfully remembers losing his life list in the book taken into
the field. As people grow serious, they can become listers: life list, North American list, world list, state list, year list, etc. Ebird automatically keeps these lists for you. Listing does two things. It provides a great memory recall, but it also creates a challenge to find something new.

These are excellent tips to get you started birding, or to take your birding to the next level and improve your skills. But wait, there’s more! Keep watching for part two, where we share practical tips on making your outings even more enjoyable.

To learn more about eBird, click here.

To learn more about BirdsEye, click here.

Submitted by Gina Sanders