5 Tips for Beginning Birders

These Northern Pintails Can be easy to see. Take the time to study the females and look for minor field marks.

Birding can bring great joy to lots of otherwise mundane aspects of life. Nearly everywhere you go you will see birds if you are looking, but how to identify the birds you see can be intimidating to the beginner. Here are 5 tips to make your earliest days bird watching more fun and less frustrating:

1. Look for big birds that hold still. Several types of birds are fairly common in many areas and are more easily studied than others. Small, flighty, relatively non-descript species like sparrows, flycatchers and finches can be frustrating. Consider starting with waterfowl. Often in a nearby pond or city park you can find a variety of species of waterfowl. They are generally beautifully colored (males at least), large, can be approached fairly easily, and sit around for you to study them.
   
   This Ross's goose is an uncommon sighting, but the Greater white-fronted geese are more common.

2. Don't' worry that you cannot identify every bird you see. None of us can and it is just fine to leave some birds unidentified. Relay and enjoy the birds and being out birding.
   
   The Rock Sandpiper in the foreground may be easier to pick out of this mixed flock than the Black turnstones and Surfbirds huddled in the background

3. Take the time to really learn the common birds in your area. It is easy to just pass off a common park duck as "a Mallard." But study the details of plumage, structure, and behavior. You'll learn that the Mallard's head is relatively large in comparison to many other dabbling ducks. The white trailing wing edge can be helpful to identification of a Mallard in flight.

4. Try to find opportunities to go birding with experienced birders: Most birders are very happy to share their expertise, to help you with identification skills, and it's fun to learn from and bird with others.

5. Keep records of your sightings on a free public site like eBird: Using eBird or another similar site to record your bird sightings makes it really easy to keep good records of your findings, allows you to see what other birders are seeing nearby, and makes you a member of the birding community. Here is a link to the "What is eBird Page." http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/973841-what-is-ebird-?t=435217

Stay tuned for more birding tips, tools and topics on this blog.