Looking for a new hobby?
- Jessica Dunn
- Oct 19, 2020
- 2 min read
While the pandemic continues, we all need something to keep us going - and picking up a new hobby is a great way to escape! Birding is a virtually free hobby to start, and now is an excellent time to start! Fall migrations are underway, so you have a good chance of spotting a variety of species.
Knowing what to look for to ID a species of bird isn't as easy a thing as people may think! With mammals, it is generally easy to figure out what species you are looking at. Are you in the northeast United States, watching a small, gray, fluffy tailed animal run up and down trees? Probably a gray squirrel. Are you in the northeast United States and looking at a small, brownish bird running along the shoreline on the beach? Several possibilities! It could be a species of sandpiper, a piping plover, or a sanderling for starters! Bird ID is difficult for many reasons - males and females often have different plumage, adults usually look different from juveniles, and plumage may differ depending on season. In addition, many birds migrate so you cannot always use location to determine what species of bird you are looking at! So where to start?
Things to make note of:
- where are you: what part of the world are you in, and what habitat are you in? Desert, marsh, forest, etc.
- What size/shape is the bird? Is it the size of a duck? robin? ostrich?
- What color is it? Does it have any distinguishing markings on its face/head?
- What is it doing? Is it wading in water looking for food? Is it sitting still in a tree trying to look invisible? Is it diving into the ocean catching fish?
If you have this basic information (or most of it) you should be able to ID your bird using a guide book or bird ID website to determine who your bird is. Practice! The more you ID birds, the better at it you will be!
Why is Bird identification important?
Bird populations are in decline all over the world for many reasons - habitat loss, climate change, human disturbances, invasive predators, pollution...the list goes on and on. Scientists use data from regular ordinary people to monitor bird populations. This gives them a greater data set than could ever be collected by scientists alone, and can provide a warning about population declines.https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/citizen-science-be-part-of-something-bigger/
IT'S FUN!!! Yes, it's fun! Try keeping track of what species you have come across, and which species you want to come across! You could even participate in a Big Year - a competition to see who can spot the most species of bird in a certain area over a year (https://goldengateaudubon.org/blog-posts/plan-big-year-birding/). To get an idea of what it takes to complete a Big Year, check out the movie of the same name starring Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson. https://www.amazon.com/Big-Year-Steve-Martin/dp/B004LWZWBU
Helpful Sites:
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