BIRDING TIPS
1. Be quiet. Birds are easily startled by loud noises and will flee when startled. It’s nearly impossible to sneak up on a bird, because birds hear much better than human beings do. By minimizing noise, you can get much closer to a bird. 2. Avoid sudden movements. Just as loud noises startle birds, so does sudden movement. Getting close to a bird means stalking it, and moving slowly and deliberately. Sudden, jerky movements, even when swinging your binoculars up to your eyes, can make a bird nervous and fly away. The closer you are to a bird, proceed slowly and quietly. 3. Follow the crowd. In the non-breeding season (the winter months in most of North America), many small songbirds join flocks of mixed species both for protection and to make finding food easier. Typically, these flocks are largely silent, but there will almost always be one or two birds making call notes. Following a single calling bird will often lead you to a larger feeding flock. 4. Study habitat. Each bird is specially adapted to a particular habitat. Meadowlarks prefer large open
fields, woodpeckers need trees, sparrows favor thickets, for example. What you see will depend in large part on where you look. 5. Work the flocks. Your chance of finding an unusual bird is far greater in a flock, because more birds are available to look at. Banding studies have shown that when you think you have 10 chickadees in your yard, probably 20 exist. When you think you have seen all 20 sparrows in the brush pile, there are probably 20 more. 6. Be patient. A sparrow hopping around in a bush will eventually move into a spot where you can get a good look. Bird watching is often about being patient and waiting for the birds to show themselves. 7. Get the sun at your back. If you are able to, move around so the sun is behind you. This will make it much easier to see and identify birds. When the bird is between you and the sun, color disappears, and the bird you are trying to identify may be just a black silhouette.
NOTES
LEGEND
(C) - Commonly seen (U) - Uncommonly seen
Thank you to our fellow member Dr. Burton Greenburg for providing all the content and assisting with the preparation of this booklet. If any birds are sighted that do not appear on this list, they may be considered rare. Please notify the marketing department at 561-775-3327, to report bird updates. Additional checklists are available at the POA office.
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