How Do I Go About Identifying Backyard Birds?

As you are staring out your window one Spring day, you might start to wonder how to identify the birds you're seeing in your backyard. Learning how to do so will require some time and patience; however, once you have learned, you may have found yourself a new and rewarding hobby.

Studying the Key Characteristics

Once you spot a bird, there are a few specific categories which you need to pay attention to in order to properly identify the creature. The categories that you should study are as follows:

• Size: Determining the size of the bird will help you to really narrow down the possibilities. Obviously, you are not going to get out a measuring tape and begin sizing the bird. If you are good at eyeballing measurements, do that. Otherwise, think of the bird in comparison to other birds.
• Sound: What kind of noise is the bird making? Do they have a song or a call? Learning to determine the differences in the sounds birds make will greatly help you to narrow down the type of bird as well.
• Color and markings: A huge way in which birds differ from one another is in this category. You can start by eliminating any type of bird that is not the correct color. Of course, you will want to make sure that you are not just seeing some rare form of the species. Observing markings is quite useful as well.
• Beak: By observing the beak, you will get a clue as to what type of food the bird eats. Is it a short and stocky beak, like the seed eaters have or is it a long and narrow beak, like the insect eaters have?
• Family: Figuring out what family the bird belongs to will help you get to the species as well. Different families have different traits.

Preparing Yourself

If you think that you are just going to study what some birds look like, and then run outside and start making accurate observations, you are incorrect. You are only going to learn how to identify birds through experience.

You can start acquainting yourself with different types of birds. While you are paging through books or the Internet and looking at different pictures, try to pinpoint times when you have seen those types of birds in your backyard. Having an image in your head from your own life will certainly help you remember what the bird looks like and identify it in the future.

Once you feel that you have studied well, you are going to need to get your supplies ready before you head outdoors.

• Have a guidebook with you, so that you are able to look up the type of bird after observations.
• Bring out a notebook and pen as well. Birds can fly away, so you want to write down your observations.
• Taking a camera will help you to capture the image, so that you can compare later on. However, make sure you are not using a camera with a flash that is going to frighten the birds away.

• A good bird watcher should also have a spotting scope and a pair of binoculars with him or her.

These tools are very important to making sure that you get the best view of the bird possible.

Happy bird watching! With a little research and patience, you will be identifying backyard birds in no time.