‘Birding can be addictive,’ warns Nature Conservancy scientist

This weekend was the 25^th annual Great Backyard Bird Count. Nature Conservancy of Canada scientist Sarah Ludlow spoke to MooseJawToday.com about birds, watching birds, and why conservation is important.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada encouraged Saskatchewanians to get outside Feb. 18 to 21 and count birds. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a massive global project run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The Cornell Lab also provides a huge amount of resources for birdwatchers (birders) who want to learn bird identification, habits, all about the different species, and techniques for bird photography, journaling, and sketching.

But it doesn’t take all of that to get started with the hobby. Ludlow said that if you love birds, you can go out to watch, listen to, and appreciate them without any equipment or identification guides.

That being said, “it usually helps to have a pair of binoculars. You know, if the bird is high up in a tree, you don’t have to get as close to identify it.”

There are a range of options for binoculars, Ludlow said, so you can get a decent pair for a reasonable price. The other piece of kit that can be helpful is a local field guide.

“Whenever I go somewhere new, I’ll buy a field guide for that place and spend some time reviewing it,” she explained. “And that’s so I have a sense of what I’ll be looking at when I get there. Once I do see a bird, I’ll probably still have to look it up, but it’ll be faster.”

The Merlin bird app (also by the Cornell Lab) can take the place of a field guide, or complement it. It provides a series of steps to identify birds, asking questions such as where the bird was seen, the colour of its plumage (feathers), and whether it was soaring or perching. Then, it provides a list ranked by likelihood of being a match, with pictures and song recordings for reference.

“I would use both (a field guide and the app), honestly,” Ludlow said. “The Merlin bird ID app is really good for helping you identify a bird, and it’s free. And if you’re a beginner, it’s particularly helpful because that app will ask you targeted questions to help you narrow down what you’re looking at.”

The Merlin app can also use location data to keep track of where you saw each bird, when you saw it, and how many times you’ve identified a particular species. As well as tracking your birding, it sends anonymized data aid conservationists in following and counting populations.

Birding can be a wonderful hobby to get you out of the house. It will familiarize you with local trails and different habitats, and can push you to explore in order to find new species.

“Birding gets you outside, gets you outdoors, gets you in nature,” Ludlow said. “It’s relaxing to just watch birds do what they do.” You don’t have to make a list and practice identifications every time either, she said – you can just go watch, and that is still benefiting your mental and physical health.

In terms of science and conservation, birds can often be visible signs of the environmental health of an area. Birds are often good indicators of ecological change, Ludlow said. Some species are very specialized to specific habitats.

In Saskatchewan, we have a group of birds that are considered habitat specialists for the native grassland found here. It doesn’t mean they can’t use other habitats – but they won’t do as well there. For example, vast amounts of native prairie grasslands have been converted for use in agriculture, causing declining populations of all the birds forced to survive without the food they’ve evolved to specialize in.

Ludlow’s favourites are black-capped chickadees. “They’ve always just been my favourite bird. They’re so feisty, and they’re brave and fearless. When I fill up my bird feeders, the sparrows and finches and woodpeckers will all fly away to wait for me to leave, but the chickadees don’t. It’s very endearing how much attitude is packaged into this tiny little cute exterior.”

If you’re thinking of getting into birding, know that you don’t have to be an expert. “Birding is for everybody. You also probably know more bird species than you realize… and it can be really addicting, so maybe heads up on that,” Ludlow laughs.