Three Tips for a Fun Birding Trip
Have you heard about bird watching? While comfortably sitting in the backyard enjoying all the feathered visitors to your bird feeders is always an amazing way to relax, some people crave for more — we still have our bird feeders in the yard, but we also go out and look for them.
But how do I look for birds? How long should I be outside looking at birds? Where should I go to see the birds? — to help you have a better birding experience, here are some tips to prepare for a birding trip. So How Do I Prepare for a Bird Trip?
It doesn’t have to be complicated. It could be as easy as if you are about to take a walk in a nearby park. But if you’re a little bit more adventurous and would like to visit a birding ‘hotspot,’ or just want to maximize your birding experience, here are some tips for you:
Tip 1: Know Where You’re Going
Make sure that you know where you’re going sounds simple, but every detail matters —do you know how to get there? Is there a road closure? What is the parking situation there? Are there any rules for visitors to prevent the spread of COVID-19? There was a time when we wanted to visit the Fish Canyon Falls, but only to find that there was a wildfire the night before and the trail is closed after we got there. Another time when we went to the famous Chilao Visitor Center, the Angeles Crest Highway was closed halfway and it took an additional hour to re-route. And when we are on our way to less commonly visited places, such as the Big Tujunga Wash Mitigation Area, we make sure we can park at places that don’t block any traffic and park legally (street parking available outside of the Angeles National Golf Club, if you ask). We were also locked outside of the Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ the first day it closed due to the pandemic. Check the official website if the place you’re going to has one. Google Maps sometimes also show information about road closures and opening hours of some places. Do the homework and plan ahead, so that you can enjoy it as much as you can!
Knowing about the weather condition is important, too, as it affects what you should wear and what you should bring with you. If it’s going to rain, wear the right shoes and bring a raincoat. If it’s going to be sunny, put on sunscreens and bring lots of water. Also, mind the temperature variation between day and night. At least in SoCal, the difference could be as large as 60F, so layering is crucial. We usually head out before sunrise to catch the prime birding time at dawn, and it’s cold in the morning even when it gets over 90F at noon! We follow the layering strategies from REI’s courses — the base layer for drying out the sweat, the middle layer for keeping the body heat, and the outer layer for rain and wind protection. Read more: Layering Basics at REI.com
If you feel like it, it is also tremendously helpful to check what birds you might see before you go. This is our little secret for fast identification in the field — we’d preview what birds are commonly seen in the places we’re going to. The eBird has an interactive map of ‘hotspots’ where you can see what species were reported. Simply type in the name of the place, like the Eaton Canyon Park or the Huntington Botanic Gardens, hit the blue button ‘View Details,’ and a list of sightings will show up. Lookup any unfamiliar birds on the list, flip through the field guides (or swipe through the Merlin app), and you’ll be twice as sharp when you hit the ground. Previewing what birds we might see makes identification a lot faster.
Lastly, to skip all the hassle, find a birder who’s familiar with the place to go with you. Don’t know any? This leads to our next tip:
Tip 2: Find Local Pro Birders (Audubon Society)
The National Audubon Society is an organization that promotes conservation for birds, named after an American ornithologist John James Audubon. There are numerous chapters at different levels, from the state, county, to city. You can find a local Audubon Society on their website (Audubon Near You) based on your location. They are usually a group of birders in the community who are eager to share their joy of birding with anyone who’s willing to try. There are Sunday bird walks for almost every chapter, where a field leader who’s extremely familiar with a park takes you on a walk and shows you all the birds there every Sunday morning. All the Audubon societies also have field trips from time to time, usually to some more remote locations that they’re familiar with. Find a trip that sounds interesting to you and sign up for it!
We started birding with the Champaign Audubon Society when we lived in Illinois. We knew nothing about birds. The birders there were extremely nice and helpful. Some of them never got tired of pointing out the birds that we just can’t see. Others offered us valuable tips and suggested nearby hotspots for us to visit. We also went on a few field trips to parks further away to see the birds in different habitats. We learned so much from them as beginners!
The first thing we did after settled down in Los Angeles is finding all the local Audubon Societies. It’s a new place for us, we didn’t know anyone here, and all the birds look foreign to us. We quickly found the Pasadena Audubon Society that holds Sunday bird walks at the Eaton Canyon Park. We later joined the Pomona Valley Audubon Society on a trip to the Hidden Valley and fell in love with them ever since. We also went on a field trip to Bishop, CA with them to see all the winter birds and raptors in the snowfields. We went out birding together, enjoyed the stunning views in the snow, admired the sunrise in the valley, and made precious friends there.
All in all, perhaps the easiest way to start birding is to find a local Audubon Society and join their Sunday bird walks. Check their websites since they usually publicize their next field trips there. Contact the trip leaders and ask for more information.
Tip 3: Grab a Bird Guide With You
One essential part of the birding experience is to identify the species we saw. The easiest way is to ask your fellow birders. But if you want to identify them by yourself someday, we highly recommend having a copy of the field guide with you. Here’s a summary of the two field guides and the ID app we use. You may also want to check out the Gear Advice from the Audubon Society, ‘What Bird Guide Is Best For You?’
We personally use Kenn Kaufman’s field guide for fast identification. This guide is full of large and actual photos of the birds, with detailed information about habitats, field marks, and bird songs. The most brilliant part is that it puts similar birds together for quick comparison. For instance, all the gulls look the same for us at first. But Kaufman put all the common gulls together, like the Caspian Tern, Royal Tern, and Elegant Tern are all on the same page, with highlights on the colors of on the bill (Caspian Terns have red bills, but Royal Terns and Elegant Terns have carrot orange bills), the shapes of the bills (Caspian Terns and Royal Terns have thick bills but Elegant Terns have thin bills), and their ranges of habitat (Caspian Terns are widespread, while Royal and Elegant Terns are common in the coastal areas but not the inland parts of the continent). When looking at a tern in front of us, we can use these three pieces of information to know the species of this particular tern according to Kaufman.
2. The Sibley Guide to Birds (West and East)
We also carry David Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds of Western North America with us all the time. It has every feature that we appreciate from Kaufman’s field guide, but it has more information about gender and age variation of the birds. Moreover, since all the pictures in Sibley’s guides are illustrated, he is able to highlight the important field marks in his drawing for better identification. Sometimes when we can’t decide the species based on Kaufman’s field guide, we consult Sibley’s to see if it’s a female or juvenile that we couldn’t recognize.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has been studying birds and collecting data about bird sightings around the world. Based on the data they have, they developed an app that helps identify the birds — the Merlin Bird ID app — for free. Open the app, click on ‘Start Bird ID,’ answer the questions about the bird (location, time, size, color, and behavior), and the app returns a list of the most likely birds with pictures, descriptions, and you can even play the sound of the bird right away. You can also use the ‘Photo ID’ feature by uploading a picture or taking one. It’s very handy when you have cell phone coverage.
Before we bought the bird guides, we heavily relied on the Merlin app. When we’re not working, we’re often swiping through all the birds in the area using the Explore Birds function just to study the birds for fun.
