Tag: birds

Beginning of Birdwatching

It’s one of the first eye-openers for people who are just starting to pick up birdwatching: the experience of hearing a birder call out names of birds in quick succession as a flock passes by, seemingly without looking. But like anything, it’s mainly practice—and it’s surprisingly easy to learn. You can watch (and listen to) birds pretty much anytime you’re outside. You mainly just need patience, careful observation, and a willingness to let the wonder and beauty of the natural world overtake you. Here are some tips on how to get started:

1. Binoculars. Your enjoyment of birds depends hugely on how great they look through your binoculars, so make sure you’re getting a big, bright, crisp picture through yours. In recent years excellent binoculars have become available at surprisingly low prices. So while binoculars under $100 may seem tempting, it’s truly worth it to spend $200 to $300 for vastly superior images as well as better warranties, waterproof housing, and a great feel.

2. Field Guide. Once you start seeing birds, you’ll start wondering what they are. An informal poll of my coworkers showed a clear field guide favorite: the Sibley Guide, in either its full North America version or smaller, more portable Eastern and Western editions. Other useful guides are Kaufman’s, Peterson’s, and the National Geographic guide. Don’t forget that on the Web you can get information and sounds.

3. Bird Feeders. With binoculars for viewing and a guide to help you figure out what’s what, the next step is to bring the birds into your backyard, where you can get a good look at them. Bird feeders come in all types: we recommend starting with a black-oil sunflower feeder. Add a suet feeder in winter and a hummingbird feeder in summer (or all year in parts of the continent). From there you can diversify to millet, thistle seeds, mealworms, and fruit to attract other types of species.

4. Spotting scope. By this point in our list, you’ve got pretty much all the gear you need to be a birder… until you start looking at those ducks on the far side of the pond, or shorebirds in mudflats, or that Golden Eagle perched on a tree limb a quarter-mile away. Though they’re not cheap, spotting scopes are indispensable for getting those last few clues about a species ID—or to simply revel in intricate plumage details that can be brought to life only with a 20x to 60x zoom. And scopes, like binoculars, are coming down in price while going up in quality.

6. Skills. Once you’re outside and surrounded by birds, we recommend practicing a four-step approach to identification. First you judge the bird’s size and shape; then look for its main color pattern; take note of its behavior; and factor in what habitat it’s in. 

7. Records. Birders like the ones who inspired the 2011 movie The Big Year are called listers—people who love (or are obsessed with) compiling lists of the species they’ve seen. But you don’t have to be a lister to reap benefits of writing down what you see—think of notes as a kind of diary with a focus, chronicling the days of your life through the birds you’ve seen and places you’ve been. Many people keep their records online in our free eBird project, which keeps track of every place and day you go bird watching, allows you to enter notes and share sightings with friends, and explore the data all eBirders have entered.

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BIRDS

ABOUT BIRDS:

Birds are vertebrates. Their main characteristic is their feathers. The birds come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Other important features of birds are wings, beaks, and hollow bones. Birds are basically warm-blooded. Birds lay eggs. Birds are found in almost all parts of the world. The bodies of birds are covered with feathers and their feet covered by scales. Different birds are found in different places as determined by climate. Birds bring a kind of beautiful addition to the scene. Most of the birds can fly in the sky and travel long distances in the air. It builds a nest on the trees and eats insects, fish, grains, etc. Birds migrate for several reasons. Migration is a necessary part of the survival of many types of birds. The sounds that birds make are some of the most beautiful sounds in nature. When birds communicate, they use songs and calls. There are migratory birds that fly from one country to another over the hills, lakes, and oceans during some particular season.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF BIRDS:

There are over 10,000 various species of birds across the world.The bird differs in size, communication skills, colors, shapes, migration patterns, etc….

IMPORTANCE OF BIRDS:

Birds are important members of many ecosystems. They are important for the environment as well as for human beings, they play a vital role in every living thing present on earth. They play a vital role in controlling pests, acting as pollinators, dispersing seeds, and maintaining island ecology. Birds are greatly helpful to humans and nature. Due to pollution, excess use of pesticides, modernization, and widespread radiation many birds are getting extinct. Thus we need to protect them.

HOW CAN WE PROTECT BIRDS? :

Some ways to protect birds are,

  • Use Natural Pest Control
  • Support Conservation.
  • Clean your bird bath and bird feeders regularly.
  • Avoid the use of pesticides in your yard.
  • Provide or protect bird habitat.
  • Prevent Bird Collisions with Your Windows Collisions are one of the most frequent causes of bird deaths. Birds see nature reflected in the window or mistake houseplants inside the building for outdoor plants and fly into the glass. Putting up curtains or window decals helps make the window visible to birds.
  • Support bird conservations.
  • Protect birds from pets.

FUN FACTS ABOUT BIRDS:

  • Flamingo chicks are born gray or white and take up to three years to reach their mature pink.
  • To deal with the summer heat, birds have a behavior called gular fluttering. This is when the bird will open its mouth and “Flutter” the upper throat muscles to promote heat loss, similar to panting in dogs.
  • Birds have a third inner eyelid called the nictitating membrane, which sweeps horizontally across the eye. Blinking with this eyelid lubricates the eye, protects it from wind and dust, and assist aquatic birds with underwater vision.
  • Hummingbirds have 1,000 to 1,500 feathers, the fewest number of feathers of any bird species in the world. This keeps them more lightweight for easier flight.
  • Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.