Birdwatching, or birding, is one of the simplest hobbies to enjoy. At a time when almost every aspect of life is becoming more and more expensive, simple, old-fashioned hobbies like birdwatching remain inexpensive (or even free) and easy to enjoy.
Simply sit on your front porch or take a walk in the park to immerse yourself in the beauty of birdlife.
What Is Birdwatching?
All you need to get started birdwatching is a pair of eyes and a window. Whether you live in the city, the country, or the suburbs, you can get to know your own, local birdlife by watching and listening to the birds around you.
Birdwatching is simply the observation of birds for enjoyment or self-education. Whether you’re just sitting and watching your bird neighbors, or keeping a running list of the birds you see and comparing it with birdwatchers across the country, birdwatching can be an absorbing hobby.
I remember when my parents first picked up birding as a hobby. They would sit on their big front porch in the evenings and point out birds they didn’t recognize to each other. Eventually, they started looking up their bird neighbors, and now, they recognize locals at a glance.
At first, I dismissed the hobby as an activity for retirees.
But then, I noticed a scarlet tanager in my yard, and I was overjoyed. A year later, we watched as Mr. and Mrs. Scarlett Tanager built a nest behind the goat pen and raised their young birds throughout the summer.
Suddenly, birdwatching didn’t seem like a hobby for retirees anymore; it was my new early morning activity.
History of Birdwatching
For much of human history, birdwatching has been second nature to us. Folklore and superstitions depend so heavily on a working knowledge of birds and their habits that it’s obvious our ancestors were familiar with the bird life around them.
Unfortunately, during the Industrial Revolution, too many people began clustering in dark city streets and losing touch with the natural world.
Birdwatching, as a term, dates from about 1901, when Edmund Selous coined it. Going “birding” is a much older term, but prior to the modern age, “birding” could mean bird hunting as well as “bird-nesting” (collecting birds’ nests) and simply running wild in the woods.
The idea of spending time intentionally watching birds as a hobby seemed as strange to the people of the pre-industrial revolution as “forest bathing” seems to country boys today.
Health Benefits of Birding
Birdwatching isn’t just fun and pretty. Birdwatching is good for your health, too. Because it’s a restful activity that encourages mental focus and observation, birdwatching is good for your stress levels, mental health, and memory.
People have turned to birdwatching to help distract from pain and to boost their mood. Spending a bit of time each morning with familiar birds can produce a similar mood boost to owning a pet, but without the work involved in pet ownership.
Since serious birders often spend time outside – walking down familiar trails, hiking new locations, or just sitting on the porch – they often get the benefits of fresh air and exercise as well. Birdwatching is also a great activity to share with others.
Grandparents can introduce their grandchildren to the world of birds, friends can gather to watch the geese migrate, and birdwatchers across the country can share information with each other as they compare stories and information.
The purported health benefits are backed by science. Stobbe, E., Sundermann, J., Ascone, L. et al. found in Scientific Reports that “birdsongs alleviate anxiety and paranoia in healthy participants.”
Another report by King’s College in London found that being able to hear birdsong improved mental well-being for up to eight hours afterward.
Getting Started
Birdwatching is one of the easiest hobbies in the world to start. Just sit down and start watching your local birds. If you’re in the city, find a park bench and get to know the pigeons (technically, rock doves) and crows.
Soon, you’ll start noticing sparrows as well. Then, you’ll see a bird you don’t recognize, and you can start researching. If you’re in the suburbs, you might see even more species like crows, sparrows, blue jays, cardinals, swallows, woodpeckers, and others.
In the country, there are even more to watch for. We often see quail, turkeys, and pheasants.
If you want to take your birdwatching to the next level, then you can expand your process with the following steps:
1. Find a Book or App
After a while, you may want to pick up a book on local bird types. Start by checking your local thrift shop, heading to the library, or asking a friend if you can borrow a good book.
National Geographic and the Audobon Society have good birding books that will give you an idea of what birds frequent your area.
We also love Sibley’s Bird flashcards. These cards are simple and easy to use, and you can flip through them and tuck away all the cards that don’t refer to birds in your area to make the cards easier to reference.
You don’t need to own a birdwatching book, of course. You can use an app or simply look up bird species online. Just remember, not everyone who claims to know birds well online actually does.
Rely on reputable apps like Merlin Bird ID, which is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It can help you identify birds by sound, photo, or description.
2. Welcome the Birds
Set up a bird feeder, or even a few feeders, to invite birds into your yard. If you feed them, they will come! A simple, well-maintained feeder, full of black oil sunflower seeds or a basic, songbird mix, will add some bird diversity to your yard.
Remember, the longer you feed them, the more the birds will come to rely on your feeder for consistent food. Some birds may even stay into the winter because of your bird feeders. So try to keep the feeders full for your feathered friends.
Birds also love regular access to water. Try setting up a bird bath near your feeders and see your appreciative birds enjoy splashing, bathing, and drinking.
A lot of birds will eat garden pests, so not only can you enjoy watching them, but they can help keep your plants happy.
3. Wake Up Early
Many birds are early risers. Unless they’re noctural, birds find a safe place to sleep at night, and hide away til dawn. In the morning, they wake up hungry, thirsty, and ready to move. Once they know where to find food regularly, your local birds will fly to your yard early in the day for breakfast.
If you want to see all your daytime flyers, get up with the sun and drink your coffee on the porch in front of your feeders. You and the birds can have breakfast together. When you’re up early, you’ll see everyone gathering and fluttering around the feeders.
If you’re looking for local owls, go out at dusk. I’ve seen owls in the late afternoon and early evening, but you must know where to look.
4. Try New Locations
While you can get to know so many birds right at home, it’s always exciting to see new birds in new locations. Go to the seashore, walk in the woods, or go boating. In new locations, you can see so many new species of birds.
City parks are also a great place to find traveling birds in spring and fall. Migrating birds often stop in city parks because they’re safe havens of green in a sea of concrete.
5. Grab Some Binoculars
Expensive binoculars aren’t necessary for birdwatching. But having an affordable pair of clear, high-quality binoculars can undoubtedly help.
If you’re just watching birds in your backyard, they’re not going to improve things much, but they might help you identify a bird that you couldn’t make out well before. If you’re hiking or walking in the fields, binoculars can be incredibly helpful.
While boating, I’ve found binoculars helpful for seeing bald eagles up close or watching loons rise from underwater with fish in their bills. Binoculars can also help you spot baby birds in the nest or owls in the trees.
As you become more advanced, binoculars will help you determine similar-looking species from one another.
Speaking of, let’s talk about some common species next.
Common Bird Species
No matter where you are, look for common North American birds that live nationwide.
1. Crows and Bluejays
Shiny, black crows (Corvus spp.) are my favorite birds. They’re clever, playful, and fun to watch. I’ve seen my local crows teaching their young to fly, stealing eggs from my chicken yard, and hopping teasingly away from the dog.
Their close relatives, bluejays (Cyanocitta spp.), tend to be even bolder than crows and will often visit yards before the crows decide to come to check things out. Bluejays are clever birds who tend to take over birdfeeders whenever they arrive.
Bluejays are fun to watch as they bicker with each other and harass their fellow birds.
Both are easy to identify. These corvids are large, and crows are pure black. They usually travel in groups. Bluejays are gray and blue and slightly smaller than crows. They typically hang out in pairs or singles.
2. Sparrows
Tiny sparrows love eating seeds and chirping to each other across the feeder. They’re often scared away by larger birds, but they are a familiar winter presence at the bird feeder, and their perky expressions are so loveable.
Song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) live across North America and can be identified both by their cheerful song and by their streaky brown feathers.
House sparrows (Passer domesticus), as the name suggests, tend to stick around human habitation. These small birds are brown with a gray belly, and the males have black masks.
3. Robins
Robin-redbreast, aka American robin (Turdus migratories) is the first sign of spring in many areas. In the winter, robins fly south to stay warm. But in the spring, robins head back north to welcome the warm weather again.
Robins’ cheerful song is one of the first signs that winter is over at last.
These birds are the most common in the US, and they are usually the first to start singing in the morning. They’re easy to identify by their reddish-orange chest and grey-brown back.
4. Bluebirds
Bluebirds (Sialia spp.) are gentle and shy, and much less common than jays, with a sweeter song and a quieter, gentler nature. Bluejays and bluebirds aren’t related at all. They’re totally different, though they both have blue feathers.
They don’t like to hang out too close to humans, mostly preferring grasslands and lightly forested areas. They’ve also been pushed out by bolder birds like sparrows and starlings.
5. Hawks and Falcons
It is always exciting to see a bird of prey flying overhead. These hunting birds aren’t interested in your birdseed, but they may come to hunt your neighborhood birds.
I’ve seen some lovely falcons, especially in the winter. You’ll frequently see peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), and American kestrels (Falco sparverius).
Sharp-shinned hawks (Accipiter striatus), red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), Cooper’s hawks (Accipiter cooperii), northern harriers (Circus hudsonius), and northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) are all common in urban and rural areas, as well.
6. Woodpeckers
In our yard, we see plenty of both downy (Dryobates pubescens) and pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus).
The smaller downy woodpeckers will often join the smaller birds at the birdfeeder. But pileated woodpeckers tend to stick to the trees. Sometimes, they even pound away at metal roofing to mark their territory to other woodpeckers.
7. Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds are incredible migrators. They can travel hundreds of miles and up to 23 miles per day as they move from their summer to winter home. In warmer areas, hummingbirds will stick around year-round, especially if you provide food.
Anna’s (Calypte anna), ruby-throated (Archilochus colubris), rufous (Selasphorus rufus), black-chinned (Archilochus alexandri), and broad-tailed (Selasphorus platycercus) are common visitors at hummingbird feeders.
8. Doves and Pigeons
The birds we think of as pigeons aren’t true pigeons; they’re actually rock doves (Columba livia). They are an introduced species in North America and live across the continent.
Mourning (Zenaida macroura), Eurasian collared (Streptopelia decaocto), and common ground doves (Columbina passerina) are common sights in both urban and rural areas. Their cooing calls and boldness around humans makes them easy to spot.
9. Junco
Dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) live year-round in the western part of North America and spend the winter in the eastern half of North America.
These sweet little birds have black caps and are frequent visitors of feeders. They especially love to scratch around under the feeders on the ground. They have a ringing, metallic trill that stands out from other species.