Learn more about identifying birds if you are charmed by our feathered friends. Bird watching is not only enjoyable, bird watching can be extremely rewarding when you sight an unusual bird in your area.

Tips for Identifying Birds
First, get a good bird guide. The book should include pictures, descriptions and locations of common, and not so common, birds. Make sure that your field guide covers the area in which you are bird watching. For example, having a bird guide for California if you live in New York is not going to help you unless you are traveling to the West Coast.

Next, invest in a good pair of binoculars. Buy the best that you can afford, because seeing fuzzy feathers in the distance rather than a distinct bird can be discouraging.

Learn bird songs. Sometimes, you can hear a bird that is hidden in a tree or off in the distance without being able to see the bird. You can download from online sites bird songs and sounds at no cost when the recordings are in the public domain.

When using your bird guide book, read the text as well as look at the pictures. Your initial identification of a bird may not be correct if the picture looks similar, but the text indicates that the bird’s normal habitat is a marsh and the bird you see is sitting in a pine tree in the mountains. This is not to say that something like this couldn’t happen, but it is more likely that you will find your bird on another page.

Try to find a more experienced birder to take you under his or her wing. A teacher can help you avoid common bird identifying pitfalls.

Keep a log of your bird sightings. Make sure that you note the date and time of the sighting, weather conditions and the details of the “lay of the land” in your log. This is not only part of your education, this is the documentation of your sightings.