Birdwatching - Where to begin? - Travel Rich, Die Broke

If you visit Central America, you can’t miss seeing big, colourful, and often noisy birds. It’s what I love about visiting there. The parrots won’t shut up and everywhere you look there’s vibrant colour, be it a toucan, a tri-coloured heron or a social flycatcher. Here in the Lower Mainland of BC, everything seems more subdued compared to the tropics, where flamboyant colour and size rule, but there is still a lot of variety.

There are 593 different species of birds in BC according to BC Birds – and well over 200 in the Lower Mainland alone. Some are very rare or hard to find but it’s not difficult to get a respectable count.

Nowadays, with internet apps and AI, as well as the availability of reasonably priced binoculars and cameras, birding has never been easier, so what’s required?

Well, the ability to walk and look around parks is all the fitness you need, but what about equipment? Start-up costs are modest compared to many hobbies. If only one purchase were allowed, I’d say, it should be a decent pair of binos.

The “Must Haves” of Bird Watching

BINOCULARS – are essential. They come with 2 numbers, i.e. 10/42. The first number describes the magnification and 8–10x mag is the normal range. Would 20x or more magnification be better? Yes, and higher magnification scopes do exist, (often monocular), but they’re big and heavy, require a tripod for stability, they’re expensive and aimed at more serious birders. That second 42 number is the size of the main or “objective”, lens, (a bigger # equals more light). The “normal” range is 42 – 50 and to my eyes there’s very little difference, either will suffice.

Binos can range from $300 – $4000. A top-quality pair is wonderful, but we all know that a Honda Civic gets you to work just as well as a BMW does. Zeiss and Swarovski make the “BMW of binos” and yes, they’re great – clearer, brighter especially in low light – but there are lots of good “Honda Civics”. Here is one of many reviews – Best 5 binoculars. Don’t sweat this too much, any reasonably priced binos will be just fine.

A BIRD ID APP. I strongly advise Merlin’s Bird ID. It’s free and has both photo ID and song ID technology, which with decent samples, will name your bird. This was unheard of until the last few years and it’s a game changer. Indeed, I find the ID functions so good, it feels like I’m cheating! I suspect a few diehard birders are appalled that beginners can now ID a bird so easily, but let them stew. It can only improve the public’s understanding of the wonder of the avian kingdom and besides, as you get into birding you can and will learn all the finer details to whatever depth you desire. Some of you will even become opinionated “diehard birders.”

Peterson’s (Petersons ) or Sibley’s (Sibley’s birds West) both have a range of excellent hardcopy books if that’s your preference. They also have online versions, which I haven’t researched. The books are useful for fine print information, but when “in the field”, Merlin is the way to go, unless you’re in an area without internet access, (Antarctica for example), where you’ll need books.

A CAMERA – while NOT essential, is an ideal way to get bird pictures for identification purposes. I’ve discussed birding and cameras before – Bird photography. If you’re comfortable with photography, move on to point three, but if not, the most important thing to know is that your cell phone won’t cut it. You need at least 20x zoom which phone cameras don’t have – yet.

The simplest and cheapest zoom cameras are “bridge cameras”. These take good pictures, are reasonably priced, and are compact without huge bodies and enormous lenses! All the major companies make bridge cameras and you should be able to get equipped for under $1000, (OK, maybe $2000, there’s a worrying trend of higher prices!) For a review, see – Bridge cameras. This is the way to start IMO. Even if you decide later to move up to a “fancy” mirrorless or DSLR camera, that bridge camera remains ideal for the “routine” jobs like holiday pictures. Also, it’s portable for air travel; loss isn’t a life altering catastrophe; and it’s point and shoot, so even Grandparents can use it! And, if one of the older grandkids starts liking photography, it’s a great birthday present.

A flock of Dunlin, Boundary Bay, British Columbia.

OK, so the binoculars and bridge camera are unwrapped, Merlin is downloaded and it’s a lovely day for birding, so what now?

Without leaving the house, hang bird feeders and you’ll quickly get on first-name terms with hummingbirds, chickadees, song sparrows, juncos, Steller’s jays and tohees. Pleasant surprises show up as well, especially if you hang suet.
Do you have a friend who’s into birding? It’s a perfect way to start. A couple of good outings will really get the ball rolling.
Any forested park with water around is a good start and slowly you’ll pick up the good spots. There’s tons of info online, i.e. – BC birding – for BC lower mainland.
I suggest starting with water-based birds. After all, they’re parked in full view, on the water, and there are many species around. I’ve written about the 10 common ducks in my area – 10 common ducks – and that’s just a start. At the seashore, there’s a chance to see sandpipers of many shapes and sizes, gulls, loons, grebes and raptors. Meanwhile, the surrounding trees house all the “passerines”, which is a name including almost all the land-based birds like sparrows, warblers, jays, chickadees etc.
Remember – going birding is not going for a walk. You need to look and listen constantly. Power walking while listening to heavy metal won’t work and walking with non-birders is frustrating, because frequent stops and lingering to spot where the movement, singing, or hammering – wonderful Woodpeckers – is coming from, is an essential and fun part of the process.
At the start, don’t worry about IDing birds. I found my camera useful because I came home with hundreds of shots, often quite clueless for ID! At home, I’d try to sort out who’s who. In 2015 when I started, I used Peterson’s Field Guide. It’s an excellent book, but slow and inefficient when you don’t know a vulture from a vireo! I soon moved over to Merlin Bird ID and it was a game changer.
By signing up for eBird, you get a daily email of interesting sightings in your area. For me, it’s a double-edged sword, because rare birds draw the birding paparazzi and I hate being one of said paparazzi, – yes, there are lots of enthusiastic birders around – but it IS a way to see the less common birds.
Start listening to bird sounds. It becomes important especially in the spring when trying to find the small flycatchers, warblers and vireos hiding in the trees. The experts are so good they’ll identify numerous birds without even a sighting. I still find this difficult, often impossible, but Merlin’s Bird sound ID is wonderful here – sorry “diehard birders”!

After a year, you get familiar with common species and get a “nose” for where to find interesting stuff. From here, it’s wide open and the number of species racks up. I’m at 206.

I’ve noticed that people tend to “sub-specialize” quite quickly. I love getting good photos, (and occasionally I do!), while for one of my birding friends, it’s all about raptors – hawks and eagles. Some follow ebird slavishly and others like to re-set the clock and see how many they can find in a given year, or month even.

Then some people only want to see the rarist of rare and will spare no time or expense trying to do it. “Hey, there’s a rare sighting in Dawson City, Yukon! I’ll go see the American Avocet at the Reifel sanctuary this morning and then I’ll catch a flight out of Vancouver tonight”.

For me, money, time, family and perhaps common sense, precludes this particular OCD, but I’m always itching to go farther afield for new experiences, or “birds”.

What’s coming?

There are definitely changes on the horizon:

Bird ID apps will just get better, become word-wide and be downloadable, after which no internet is required.
Cameras constantly improve as they refine all the computer wizardry that controls auto-focus and more.
The main manufacturers are shifting from DSLR to mirrorless designs and DSLRs may become obsolete.

The boundaries between bridge, mirrorless and DSLRs are blurring. For example, in terms of bridge cameras, the Sony Cybershot RX-10 iv edges closer to more advanced multi-lens cameras, (it’s also pricier than other bridge cameras).

Black Headed Grosbeaks at the back yard feeder.

After looking through my Zeiss “BMW” binoculars, my wife has often said, “What a beautiful image. Why can’t they stick a camera in the binoculars so you can caputure what you’re looking at?” I assumed this was impossible and muttered things about new technology etc. Well check out the Swarovski AX VISIO. As well as being excellent binoculars, these will indeed take photo’s and ID birds – one stop birding! If I add the fact that cellphone technology improves all the time, I wonder if my FUJI XT-3 + lens and my “BMW binos” will join my dust covered VCR, CD player, Blu-Ray player and iPod in the attic.

Oh and finally, my wife asks why they couldn’t design heat-sensing binoculars so you can find all the little critters who refuse to pose for shots? Guess what? They already exist! (YOUTUBE)

Excerpt from my 2035 Diary:

“Using my e-watch, equipped with heat-sensing, electronically stabilized, sixty times zoom binoculars which project directly into my cerebral cortex, I discovered and photographed a small bird, which the bird ID function identified as a golden-crowned kinglet. The abdominal heat signal was unusually strong suggesting it was a female about to lay eggs, but unfortunately, it was flitting around too much and from my moving car I couldn’t use the ultra-sound function to count how many.”