Want to become a birder?

Why do we call it “birding” instead of “birdwatching”? Folks that engage in this activity contend that this is an active sport and it definitely involves more than just watching. It involves moving, listening, and thinking. So we call it birding to indicate that it’s an active pastime, not a passive one! What do you need to become a birder? The most important characteristic is a sense of curiosity. A good dose of patience will be required as well. You probably already have an appreciation of nature if you’ve even gotten this far….

Now, as for the physical tools of the hobby... Most important are a field guide and a pair of binoculars appropriate for looking at birds. I’m going to express *my own opinion* here – there are many field guides on the market, and dozens of different kinds of binoculars. Take my opinion for what it’s worth…but I will try to explain how I got there.

Field Guide

All of the best field guides are arranged in taxonomic order, which takes some getting used to. But since it’s consistent, once you learn it, you’ll always know it. Don’t even bother with the field guides arranged by color – too many birds are multi-colored and none of these I’ve ever seen are complete.

My recommendation: I like the Sibley guide for Eastern US. It uses drawings instead of photos, so it shows male and female and juvenile and alternate plumages. It might also show the bird in flight and other special things about the bird. It has location maps on the same page as the bird so you don’t have to flip around (except to look up the color key, which I always forget). People criticize the Sibley guides because he doesn’t give enough information about bird behavior – that is, how it usually behaves. Sometimes behavior can be the *best* indicator of a bird if you don’t get a good look at it, so this is important. But it’s still the guide I usually reach for first. It retails for $20 but you can get it for as little as $12 or $13 or even less used (you will want a clean copy – some people write in their field guides.) I’ve also learned that most birders have multiple guides because sometimes you just need another opinion. And there are specialty guides for the tougher-to-id birds (sparrows, hawks, shorebirds, etc) which you will eventually add to your library as well.

Binoculars

I shopped for binoculars for the birding classes I started, so nearly everyone in my family got binoculars that year for Christmas. I’ve tried a bunch of different ones. I’ll start by giving some general guidelines and then giving my recommendations. Porro prism binoculars are the bulkier “old fashioned” style, while Roof prism style are sleeker and may be easier to hold.

Features to look for:

Not too heavy – you’re going to be carrying them around and lifting them often - 7 or 8 or 9 times magnification. 10 at the most. This is the number before the “x” in the binocular specs. A “7x35” binocular has 7 times magnification. If you get too high a magnification the natural movement of the human hand will cause the images to always be at least slightly blurry.
The number behind the “x” is the size of the objective lens in millimeters. Ideally you want a number 5 times bigger than the magnification. The objective lens is what lets the light in – more light equals a better, brighter image. Too much means you have a lot of heavy glass, so don’t go overboard. My favorite size is 8x42.
Close focus. The closer the better. Can’t emphasize this enough. There is probably NOTHING more frustrating than actually being close to a bird and not being able to use the binoculars because they won’t focus less than 20 or 30 feet.
Quick focus. You want a focus wheel that requires few turns to go from far to near. DON’T get a pair of bins that have a focus lever instead – they are very difficult to focus precisely.
Waterproof and fogproof – you might get caught in a rainstorm and you don’t want your bins to be ruined. If you bird in Louisiana you *might* get into a high humidity situation (ya think??) and you don’t want your bins to fog up so you can’t see anything.
Field of view. This has to do with how much you can see out of your bins. Generally it’s expressed at the number of feet across you can see at 1000 yards. Over 300 is essential…the closer you can get to 400 the better. Having a large field of view means you wont’ have to move your bins as much to see a moving bird.
Twist-up eye-cups. This allows people with and without eyeglasses to use the binoculars. Twist up if you don’t wear glasses, twist down if you do.

My recommendations:

Bushnell Birders 8x42 porro prism– retail ~$70 – can be purchased online for ~$35.

A little bulky but not too heavy. Decent quality image for the price. No twist up eyecups but rubber eyepieces can be folded back for glasses wearers. Not waterproof but I left mine in the rain once and they recovered. Biggest complaint is lack of close focus—they get only as close as about 16 feet.

Meade Kestrel 8x42 roof prism - retail $219 – can be purchased online for ~$145.

These have all of the good features that I describe above and are decently priced. Close focus is about 4 feet, which is great! An excellent value. They also come in 10x42 – you give up a few feet in field of view.

Nikon Monarch 8x42 roof prism – retail $450 – can be purchased online for ~$250

Again, these have all of the good features described above. Close focus isn’t quite as good as Meade’s. Optics quality is probably a little better. I’d like to find a really decent pair of roof prism bins for under $100, but I’ve yet to come across them. I’m still looking though!

Jane Patterson
www.seejanebird.com
March 2008