What to Take With You

While it is true that you don’t need any special equipment to enjoy watching birds, there are a number of things that enhance the experience. Some make the physical observation of birds more comfortable. Others enable you to watch birds from further away so as to avoid disturbing them. Still others allow you to record your sightings.

Clothing

First and probably most important, even if you have no other tools for bird-watching, you should at least make sure you have the proper clothing. Wear good closed-toed shoes as often birding will take you to places that are muddy or rocky. Some places are also home to other animals – a pair of good sturdy hiking shoes may mean avoiding insect or snake bites.

In addition, while you can get good birding during all seasons depending on where you go, migration season for most birds is in the spring and fall. This means cooler temperatures in most places. You will want to dress accordingly, and keep in mind that often, again depending on where you go, there may be a lot of wind. So even if it’s only in the mid-40s temperature-wise, strong wind may make it feel ten to fifteen degrees colder. A sweatshirt might not cut it. On the flip side, some places are warm to hot even in the spring and fall. You may prefer to go with shorts and a tee-shirt.

For Your Skin

Keep in mind the fact that most of the warmer places also have lots of mosquitoes. Long pants and long sleeves may help keep them at bay, but they can still bite through some fabrics, including denim. I live in the Houston area of Texas, where some of the best birding in the country is along the Gulf Coast. Here, mosquitoes are an even bigger problem than the heat and humidity – I could happily bird in 100-degree temperatures with 80% humidity if I didn’t have to deal with mosquitoes.

The other warm-weather birding essential is sunscreen. You may frequently find yourself birding in open country, in grassy fields with little tree cover for shade. Sparrows, flycatchers, wrens, blackbirds, and even harriers, kestrels, and other raptors all live, eat, or hunt in these places. In some places you can get a sunburn in less than fifteen minutes. Try to apply the sunscreen in advance – allow some time for your skin to absorb it, because as you wipe away sweat, you’re also wiping away some of the sunscreen. You will also need to bring enough to reapply, as it typically wears off within an hour and a half, and you may be birding longer than that.

Tools of the Trade

Other things simply make it easier to watch birds from a distance, or to be able to identify what it is you’re seeing.

Binoculars

Being able to watch birds from a distance is important, because getting too close often disrupts their natural behavior. The simplest way to observe birds from a distance is with a pair of binoculars.

Like cameras, binoculars can vary widely in cost, from under $100 to over $2,000. You want binoculars that find a good balance between having a wide field of view, allowing in good light, and being lightweight. Binoculars are classified by magnification power and objective lens size. Most birders prefer a magnification size of 7 or 8 and lens size between 30-42 millimeters. The classification of such a pair of binoculars would be something like 7×30 or 8×42 (the most popular size).

There is a sweet spot when it comes to binocular size, and bigger is not better. Magnification of the image you see through the lenses correlates directly with how shaky the image is. The greater the magnification power of the binoculars, the more the image will shake with the subtle movements of your hands. And larger objective lenses, or the lens at the wider end of the binoculars, make for heavier binoculars.

Spotting Scopes

A spotting scope is a small, portable version of a telescope, with greater magnification than binoculars, which usually don’t go higher than 10x magnification. Scopes typically have magnification power of between 20x – 60x. They can be used not just for bird-watching but also for hunting, sky gazing, and practically any other activity that would require the ability to observe something from a distance.

Scopes are usually mounted on a tripod to reduce shake, since, as with binoculars, the higher the magnification power the greater the effects of any vibrations the scope may be subject to. You can often also attach a camera or smart phone to a spotting scope with the use of an adapter so you can take pictures.

Cameras

If you’re like me and sometimes unsure of what you’re seeing in the moment, you might want to take a photograph to use for identification later. Cameras are indispensable tools for this, especially when paired with photo-editing computer software that will allow you to zoom in or crop the photo and adjust things like lighting, grain, and color so you can see details better. A number of the species on my birding life list are only on the list because I was able to take a photograph of a bird I wasn’t sure about, examine the details in post-processing, and compare the photograph to photographs or illustrations in my bird books or apps.

Many birders choose to use digital cameras with interchangeable lenses – some lenses are better for photographing detail from a distance, while others are better for photographing animals as part of the wider landscape. A tripod also helps, as you can set up a heavy camera and even heavier zoom lens in one spot – say, near a feeder or a drip – and wait for the birds to come to you.

Tools for Identification

Other tools make it easier to identify birds that you’re seeing, whether you carry them into the field with you or you use them at home as you go through photos.

Field Guides/Bird Books

The first tool I ever used for identifying birds was a field guide. I’ve had a number of them over the years, and they come in different forms. One of the most portable is a laminated, folding guide you can usually buy for $10 or less. You can find them anywhere from book stores to the check-out line of the grocery store to some gas stations. They often are more limited than books or digital databases, typically including only the most common or likely birds for a particular area.

Up until recently, books with drawings illustrating field marks (things like color, pattern of markings like spots or stripes, shape of bill, length of tail, etc.) were the best tool for identifying birds by sight. They can be organized in different ways: I have one that organizes birds of Texas by color, and others that organize them taxonomically – that is, by groups like geese, ducks, herons, hawks, falcons, woodpeckers, jays, finches, warblers, etc. The best books are ones that include not only drawings that illustrate specific features but also information about range and behavior.

Digital Databases

One of the best tools today, however, is a digital database. These are websites or apps that allow you to not only identify birds but also keep track of what birds you’ve seen, where, when, and how many. You can use these databases on a computer, tablet, or phone (I recommend using them on your phone because that’s easier to take into the field). There are three that I use that were created and are operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University. They are eBird, Merlin Bird ID, and All About Birds.

The first, eBird, is an online database (ebird.org) where users can log bird observations, including sightings, sound clips, and videos to provide scientists and researchers with real-time data about where birds are and how many there are. You can use eBird to create checklists to record your own observations, as well as explore reported and likely birds at different hotspots anywhere in the world.

Merlin Bird ID is an app you can use to identify birds in the field. There are three ways to identify birds. The first is a step-by-step identification process where the results are based on information you provide on location, date, appearance, and behavior. The second, Sound ID, uses your device’s microphone to record sounds and identify bird song or calls. And the third, Photo ID, accesses your device’s photos or camera to identify birds.

All About Birds (allaboutbirds.org) is a free online Bird Guide, similar to the information you might find in a field guide that’s in book form, though the information you find in All About Birds is much more comprehensive than most of the book field guides. You can search for birds by common or scientific name, as well as browse birds by family or shape.

Other Things

It is also very important, perhaps more than anything else in this article, to take water. I cannot stress enough that depending on where you are and how long you’re there, it is easy to get dehydrated. Even during the height of migration season in the spring or fall – in fact, even in the winter in some places – it may be hot depending on where you are. Even in January temperatures in my home city of Houston, Texas, for example, can be in the 80s. And when the day is warm, sunny, and windy, you can become dehydrated quickly.

Also, it may seem obvious, but it’s a good idea to take your own identification and some money. Some birding hotspots are located at sanctuaries or state parks, and some parks and sanctuaries have an admission fee that goes toward maintenance, repairs, and development.

Conclusion

Long story short, you don’t need any special equipment to enjoy the experience of watching and observing birds. You may even argue that all the bells and whistles can detract from your experience, if remembering what to bring or carrying and setting up heavy objects is something you don’t enjoy. Some people enjoy just being present in a place away from the stress and noise of civilization, where they can be quiet and become part of the environment as they listen to the sounds of nature.

But no matter what birding experience you seek, there are a few things you should take, and a few other things you may want to take, and I hope this article has been helpful in determining what some of those items may be.