Birding: Where is it?
October 25th, 2022 by georgann
A tremendous amount of information is being written about birds and birding, places to see birds, and how to identify them. There are at least seven or eight excellent field guides to bird identification plus numerous tapes and CDs of bird songs that sharpen your auditory identification.
To a novice birder all this information may be overwhelming or confusing. The following is a simple guide to finding birds for anyone just beginning to enjoy birding. As time goes on these location and identification steps become second nature.
FINDING THE BIRD.
This depends upon where you are birding. It is fairly easy to see ducks swimming in ponds and lakes, egrets and herons wading in marshy areas, shorebirds finding food on the beach or mudflats, or hawks soaring in a thermal. Such habitats are actually excellent places to begin birdwatching. It gives you a chance to get the feel of your binoculars, spotting and focusing.
Songbirds and woodpeckers are much harder to find however, when hidden by leaves and deep in understory.
The first step to finding most songbirds is to listen. Whether soft chip notes or long, melodious songs, songbirds usually give away their presence by noise. Leaf-turning on the ground can indicate an Eastern Towhee or Brown Thrasher; drumming and pecking announce a woodpecker. Listening is of the
utmost importance when locating birds.
Beyond listening, locating the bird with your eyes is an obvious goal. By scanning the tree canopy and bushes, you can either see a bird sitting quietly or darting from here to there searching for food. In many cases, small birds are not seen but rather the leaves they are in will rustle or twitch. This step often involves staring catatonically into the leaves and canopy. Try to remain unfocused while staring so that movements at your peripheral vision can be noticed. Small numbers of leaves moving indicate a small bird, perhaps a warbler, vireo or chickadee. Whole branches moving could mean a larger bird such as a crow or blue jay or a even a squirrel (which should be ignored). If the entire tree is swaying, it may be time to seek shelter.
Fall is also another problem. Deciduous trees dropping leaves here and there can cause severe hypertension amongst birders. Rule of thumb: if it falls vertically, ignore it, horizontally, find it.
FINDING THE BIRD WITH YOUR BINOCULARS.
Now that you have seen Leaf movement or the bird itself, you must progress to seeing it through your
binoculars. This is no easy task for a beginner birder. Peering through binoculars at a football game or concert is one thing. Finding an object four inches long, 100 feet away hidden in the crown of a tree is another. There are many occasions that by the time you have gotten your binoculars on the bird, it has practically built a nest, raised its young and migrated south.
Birds tend to move quickly, so first find the bird with your naked eye. Think about where the bird is in the tree in relation to something else. For example, in the crown of the tree, ask yourself is the bird at twelve o’clock, on the right at three o’clock, or on the lower left at seven o’clock? Is it at the tip of a branch or in the middle? Try to notice something stationary next to the bird that you can put your binoculars on first, then move to the bird itself. For example, you might think, “the bird is at three o’clock in that scarlet oak tree, five feet in from the tip of the skinny, crooked branch, three inches from the gray clump of lichens”. Of course, this also may require you to be a botanist. People who are good at this are usually also good at pointing out and locating birds for others.
The next step is crucial. No matter what happens, if someone steps on your foot, or a spider crawls on your arm, or someone passes a donut to you, keep your eyes on the bird. The most common mistake people make after finally finding the bird with their naked eye, is looking down at their binoculars. Don’t look down at them; they are not going away. The bird, however, will go away. Keep your eye on the bird while bringing your binoculars up in one quick motion. Watch the experienced birders in the field. Most of them will walk with their binoculars hanging close to their upper chest and their finger on the focus knob. They walk and stand like gunslingers; ready to shoot.
If you don’t see the bird through your binoculars right away, hang in there. While apparently staring up at nothing may seem a little boring, , it will eventually appear in view (unless it flew out of the back of the tree). And if it still doesn’t appear, you can always sneak a peek over the top of your binoculars, without putting them down, to scan more of the tree.
Also important to point out here; don’t take your eyes off the bird until it flies away especially if you don’t know what it is. Take your eye off the bird while searching your field guide for its illustration will surely lose him. Don’t even think of looking it up in the book until you have memorized ever feather on it’s little body and it has disappeared.
Remember, this is supposed to be fun. You may miss a lot of birds at first. Even the best birders miss a few once in awhile.
Birding Adventures, Inc.
Georgann Schmalz
Ornithologist
www.birdingadventuresinc.com