The Science of Birds - How to Find Birds

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

In this episode—which is number 115—Ivan Phillipsen guides listeners through the art and science of finding birds—a skill that even seasoned birders are always refining. While birds are everywhere, intentionally locating them in nature can be surprisingly difficult. Ivan breaks down bird-finding as a multi-scale strategy, starting from intercontinental trip planning all the way down to spotting a skulky sparrow in a dense bush. With insight from a decade of leading birding tours and inspiration from Pete Dunne’s book The Art of Bird Finding, this episode is packed with practical tips.Learn how to use digital tools like eBird, iNaturalist, and Google Maps to research hotspots and track species movements. Ivan also explores daily and seasonal bird activity patterns, offering advice on when and where to look based on habitat, weather, and migration timing. Real-world examples—from birding trips in Chile to last-minute local outings—illustrate how preparation can dramatically boost your chances of success.The episode includes a look at field techniques, including how to scan effectively with your eyes and ears, the importance of subtle movement, and how to use binoculars without missing your target. Ivan also discusses ethical considerations around using playback and the dynamics of birding in a group. Whether you’re new to birding or chasing your 5,000th lifer, this episode has tools, tips, and inspiration to sharpen your skills in the field.Links of InterestThe Art of Bird Finding [BOOK]~~ Leave me a review using Podchaser ~~Link to this episode on the Science of Birds website Support the show

One of the great things about birds is that they're pretty much everywhere on Earth. They live in nearly every terrestrial habitat, and they fly through the skies, and of course we also find them out on the ocean, far from any land. That means that, whether or not you're looking for birds, chances are there are some nearby. In fact, even when you're not looking for them, you sometimes realize you're surrounded by birds of many species, or in large numbers. But here's the funny thing. When you decide to deliberately look for birds, when you grab your binoculars and head out to go birding, the sneaky little buggers can be shockingly hard to find. So birding is often a test of patience, persistence, and skill. These and other traits often need to work in concert to locate a particular bird species or to find a significant portion of the bird diversity hidden in a patch of forest or wetland or. wherever. If you're an experienced birder, this might seem like second nature by now. You've put in the countless hours, the reps needed to build the skills and the mindset. But to the average person

walking down the street who isn't tuned into the world of birds, well, frankly, they're probably not tuned into the world around them at all because they're looking down at and completely absorbed by their phone. To that person, finding a little brown bird in a tangle of thick shrubbery might seem like black magic, like an arcane art. And even people new to birding might feel like locating a bird is often frustratingly hard, and I remember feeling that way for sure. But I've been a birding tour leader for about 10 years now. I've had many moments out bird out birding with my group where I spot some little bird tucked up in the canopy or wherever, and someone turns to me and says,

how did you even see that? How did you know it was there? The actions I had taken to find the bird were second nature to me. No big deal, really. But to that person, it seemed like I had some preternatural sixth sense. And honestly, I've had a similar reaction when birding with incredible local guides around the world whose skills far exceed my own. While superpowers or witchcraft might be helpful for finding birds, the good news is they aren't. essential. You can become an expert bird finder with practice. Sure, luck and randomness will always play a part in birding, and I'd say that's good because it keeps things spicy and exciting. But as the old saying goes, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. So you can

build your skills to be a well-prepared birder, prepared for the opportunity to find all the birds. Hello and welcome. This is the Science of Birds. I am your host, Ivan Philipson. The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners. This episode, which is number 115, is all about finding birds. Now maybe you think this should be a really short episode. Because I mean, how hard can it be, right?

You want to find some birds? You just throw down some scraps of bread on the sidewalk. And hey, what did you look at that? Here come some pigeons. Now we got some house sparrows. Maybe a couple of mallards. Congratulations. You found some birds.

Your work is done. Time to go home and watch a poorly executed live action remake of an animated Disney classic. It's true that if your goal is simply to see some birds, any old birds, as easily as possible, you can probably lure some in with bread, french fries, or bird seed. But in that case, the birds found you, didn't they? No, this episode is about the proactive approach of going out into nature to find wild birds. But even in that context, there are several goals you might have, and more on that in a moment. I also want to point out that this podcast episode is only about how to find birds.

It's not about how to identify them. We're not talking about how to figure out what species you're looking at. That involves a different set of skills. Bird ID will be the topic of a separate episode coming soon. Today, we'll take a strategic multi-scale approach, moving from broad spatial scales, like planning birding trips at the continental level, all the way down to pinpointing the location of a bird in a particular tree or bush. We'll talk about some best practices for using binoculars,

and we'll consider how the daily and seasonal activities of birds come into play. To me, what we're talking about is all fun stuff, because part of the joy in birding, I think, is the anticipation of an outing or a trip. Doing the research and planning is a way to better understand and enjoy what you're seeing once you're out there in the field. As I mentioned, I've been working as a professional birding guide for 10 years now. So I hope that qualifies me as someone who can offer you some helpful tools in your own birding. I want to point out that one of the best resources I had when researching this episode

is a great little book called The Art of Bird Finding by Pete Dunn. I highly recommend you check that out if you'd like to dig deeper into this topic. The Art of Bird Finding by Pete Dunn. But for now, it's just you and me. Whether you're a new birder or a grizzled veteran with a lifeless approaching 5,000 species, I hope I can offer you some tips and tricks for finding birds anywhere in the world,

whether it's in your neighborhood park or on the other side of the planet. Before we dive into specific techniques, it's helpful to first ask, what's your goal in finding birds? Like, what's your angle, man? Because your objective will shape how and where you look for birds. Are you going out just to enjoy the experience? Maybe you're doing some casual birding, enjoying whatever species you happen to come across. That's a perfectly valid and wonderful way to bird, just getting outside, slowing down,

tuning into nature and appreciating whatever birds show up. Or maybe you're searching for target species, specific birds you want to see that day in that place. You might be working on your life list or trying to catch a glimpse of a rare species that only shows up in a particular habitat. It might be a species that's endemic to the country or region you're in, and you really, really want to see it. Then again, your goal might be to see as many species as possible. possible. For example, maybe you're doing a big day in your home state, trying to tally the highest number of species in a single day that you possibly can. Or perhaps you're going on a birding trip and you simply want to maximize the diversity of species you experience in a region.

You want to make sure you have a plan to hit the right hotspots, to make the most of your limited time. Any of these goals or other birding goals you have are valid, of course, but each one comes with different strategies. So we'll try to keep that in mind as we progress through this episode. We're going to take a multi-scale approach to finding birds. We'll start broad at the continental or country level, then zoom into the regional scale, then down to the habitat scale, and finally we'll look at the fine scale techniques for actually spotting birds in the field. Let's start big. Imagine you're planning a birding trip, maybe to another state, another country, or even another continent.

But well before you reach your destination, there's a lot of useful research and virtual scouting you can do from the comfort of your couch at home, or your local coffee house, or even better at your desk at work when you're supposed to be answering emails or writing a report. Just don't let your boss see what you're doing. At this largest spatial scale, you're looking to answer big-picture questions. Where are the best birding regions? When is the best season to go? What species might be there? And in terms of researching the bird species, you might want to figure out which ones are the widespread, common species, and which of them are rare and difficult to find. Also, regardless of

whether or not they're common, it would be good to know which species are endemic to where you're going. In other words, which species are found in that country or region, and nowhere else in the world, those are often the ones you really want to see. One of your best starting points is a bird field guide for the region. A guide can answer some of those questions about the common birds, rare birds, endemic birds, and so on. And you can study the range maps. Maps in these books usually show you where each species is found during different seasons. Many field guides also include bonus content in the front or in the back,

maybe lists of top birding locations in the region, seasonal notes, and sometimes even specific habitat info. As I've pointed out before, this kind of introductory info in a field guide can be a gold mine of useful info. If you're lucky, there might be a bird finding guide specific to your destination. Now, these aren't ID books, there are travel tools. And these books, too, are gold mines of info. They highlight the best birding sites and the seasons to visit.

They might have trail maps and which species you might encounter at each site. As some examples, we have Finding Australian Birds, where to watch birds in southern Africa, and bird watching in Maine, a complete site guide. The American Birding Association has published a bunch of these for the U.S. I've got a few, including, for example, a birder's guide, to Louisiana. Now, these books are great, but be cautious. They're often out of date. Things change, right? Access points to public parks change, trails change. Even the likelihood of finding certain

bird species can change. So it's wise to corroborate anything you find in print with up-to-date online research. Which brings us to web resources. A basic search, something like birding in Costa Rica, or best birding spots in Arizona can yield a treasure trove of itineraries from birding tour companies as well as travel blogs and trip reports. These can help you understand where birders go and what they see.

You can also reach out to local or national birding organizations or conservation groups. Their websites might have detailed resources online. Birding organizations might be able to connect you with local birders or professional guides. And speaking of guides, hiring a local bird guide, even for a day or two, can be one of the best investments you make.

Doing it this way means you might not get the satisfaction of doing all the work yourself in finding birds, but the intimate knowledge of a local guide can boost your chances of seeing both common and rare species, and this can help make the most of your time. Similarly, you could jump on board a group tour to your destination of interest. To shamelessly plug wild latitudes, the birding tour company I own, you could join one of our tours and let us do the legwork to get you to the right place at the right time to see lots of great birds. But today, let's assume you're doing the work yourself, before the trip and during.

As you make your plans, there are powerful digital tools at your disposal. E-bird lets you explore hotspots via its desktop site. You can view heat maps of bird diversity. These can help you zero in on the locations that have the most species. Then you can click on specific hotspots on the map and browse bar charts showing species occurrence by month, and you can even filter for the exact time of year that you'll be visiting. You can also look at detailed maps for individual species that you're interested in.

Because the thing is, just because a hotspot has a lot of species diversity, That doesn't mean it has your target birds. Sometimes the best sites for finding a particular target species aren't all that great for finding a large number of species overall. So how you use eBird data will depend on your goal. Highest possible number of species, or do you have a few very special birds that you want to find? Also on the eBird website, you can go to the Explore tab

and then search by region. The result, for a country, let's say, offers a bunch of potentially useful data. For example, you can see a list of recently submitted trip reports. E-bird trip reports show the hotspots that the user visited over the course of their trip, as well as all the species they observed and links to the checklists for each site. So that's pretty cool. And one more feature on the eBird website that's pretty awesome is the status and trends maps. You go to the science page, then click status and trends, and search for a species you're interested in.

You get a wonderful dynamic range map with all kinds of options for looking at the data. This feature is a great tool for looking at where a species is expected to be at any time of year. You can even click play, and the map becomes animated, showing how the populations move within or between continents over the seasons. It's just so cool. If you haven't tried it before, you've got to check this out. out. I totally love it. I-Naturalist is another website and an associated app that's great for getting a general sense of what birds have been reported in a given region. You can filter the data by taxon, location, and month, and sort the results by observation frequency to learn which species

are the most common and which are rare. And when I say you can filter by a taxon, T-A-X-X-O-N, I mean you can look at just the birds rather than every living thing. Because I-Naturalist isn't just for birds. It's for organisms of all kinds. So you could look at just the birds in I-Naturalist, or you can take it a step further if you want to refine your search. You can narrow the results to subordinate taxa like order, family, and genus. And like in e-bird, you can also look at the data for just one species in I-naturalist.

Then we have Google Maps. Now this might seem kind of basic, since it's not specifically a birding tool, but it's still incredibly helpful. On the standard map view, look for big patches of green. These often represent parks, forests, or other natural areas. You can also search using terms like National Park, Wildlife, Nature Reserve, etc. Click around in Google Maps, look at photos, check for water feeding. like lakes, ponds, and rivers, and assess the accessibility.

Like, how easy is it to drive there? Or can you take public transportation? If you know where you're staying, like at a hotel, you can figure out drive times and routes in advance. And the last digital resources I want to mention are podcasts and YouTube videos. If you search around in YouTube or your favorite podcast app, you might find videos or podcast episodes

where someone gives a detailed description of their birding experiences in the place you're heading. Just for fun, let's give it a try. So, for example, let me search YouTube for birding Chile. Okay, so the first video is one titled Birding Chile from Santiago to Patagonia, 2022. That's a 15-minute video. And that same person made a separate 15-minute video titled Birding in Northern Chile. Next we have Chile birding with Claudio Vidal. That video is about an hour long.

There's another video titled Video Blog, Three Weeks in Chile and Patagonia. So there you go. These would be videos that could offer some excellent resources. And speaking of Chile, I recently did a nine-day birding trip on my own in the central part of the country. So when I was still at home planning this trip months earlier, the first thing I did was pull out a couple of field guides I already had. One of them is Birds of Chile by Alvaro Haramio. I have an older edition. And the other book I have is Aves de Chile, which is in Spanish, and I don't really speak Spanish, but I can somewhat understand it when I'm reading it. So this book is still useful. I looked at the

range maps in those books and read through the introductory sections, which included information about the different habitat zones in Chile. Unfortunately, I could not find a proper bird finding guide for Chile in English. Maybe there are some in Spanish, but when I searched online, nothing turned up in English anyway. What I do have, though, is a book called Habitats of the World, a field guide for birders, naturalists, and ecologists. This is a fantastic resource, and it works globally, so I used it to identify which ecoregions overlap with the areas I'd be visiting in central Chile. I also went online to find maps. and info about Chilean ecoregions.

Wikipedia has good entries for that sort of thing, usually, and there are often vegetation maps available too. Knowing which ecoregions you'll pass through is super helpful, since each one tends to support its own unique sets of birds, plants, and other organisms. From my research on Chile, then, I knew I was going to be traveling through two major ecoregions, the Valdivian temperate forest in the south, and the Chilean material further north, where the climate is considered sort of Mediterranean. Pretty early in the planning, I fired up the eBird website.

I used the heat maps to look at the areas I'd be visiting, filtered by the month of March when I'd be there to find the hotspots. The warmer colored blobs on the map, yellow, orange, and red, indicated higher species diversity, so those areas became potential places for me to spend more time. My goal in Chile was twofold. First, I wanted to experience the broadest range of habitats and enjoy the diversity of birds in those habitats. And second, I wanted to find some new species for my life list.

Even though I'd spent time in South America before, in places like southern Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, I had not been to this specific region. So I hoped to pick up some lifers, especially any endemic species unique to Chile. To further refine my target locations, I did some Google searches for personal blogs and trip reports to see where other birders went and what they found. I also searched for lists of Chilean endemics to figure out which ones I might have a chance of seeing based on the overlap with my route. That short list included species like crag chilea, mustached turka and slenderbilled

parakeet. I watched a couple of YouTube videos like the ones I mentioned earlier and I browsed through itineraries from commercial birding tours to get a sense of any common hotspots they all visit because if multiple tour companies include the same stops, those are probably high-value locations in terms of either species diversity or special birds like endemics. I also got in touch with a local guide in Chile

who gave me some great suggestions on where to go to find specific target species on the coast, birds like Humboldt penguin and Inca Turn. Once I started plotting my actual route on a map, booking hotels and mapping out where I'd be driving, I could match up the eBird hotspots with my itinerary. Using Google Maps, I identified the exact locations of those hotspots and bookmarked them in the app. I figured out whether they were national parks, regional reserves, or something else, and I figured out the best driving routes. I also checked the websites for each of these places to find out if they had entrance fees or specific operating hours or any restrictions I needed to know about. If the websites

were only in Spanish, which was generally the case, I could use Google Translate if needed to make sense of it all. Once I got to Chile, I had a rental car and a fair bit of flexibility, so I continued to do research and adjust my plan as I went along each day. In the end, it all paid off. I had a super awesome time and got to see lots of wonderful birds, including 19 lifers, species I had never seen before. Okay, so that was the continental scale, the largest spatial scale. Now we're going to zoom in to the regional or local spatial scale. The scenario I imagine here would be having a weekend to explore and go birding in your local area.

Maybe you're hoping to visit some new birding sites. Or maybe you're on vacation in another country. You have a rental car and you want to go birding for a day or two. That's sort of like me driving around in Chile. At this regional scale, whether you're exploring your local area or traveling, you can refine your strategy using many of the same tools from the continental stage. but now with a local focus. In this scenario, however,

you might not have as much time to do research and make decisions. You aren't going to spend hours looking through books or reading trip reports. You need to get moving. So hopefully you did your homework and did research well before the day arrives and it's time to get out in the field. But let's say you didn't do a ton of work in advance. It turns out you're a slacker, but hey, hey, no judgments. I've been there.

But now you're itching to go explore and find some birds. Well, there's good news as long as you have the eBird mobile app. Open the app and go to the explore feature. On the current version of the app on my Android phone, you find the explore feature by clicking the little magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen in the center. The explore feature is a powerful tool to discover active birding hotspots near you. You'll see a map with red and blue markers.

Red means recent checklists have been submitted there, while blue suggests little or no recent activity. You can adjust the time frame from 1 to 30 days and the radius around your location, making it easy to scout spots within your reach. When you click on a hotspot, you'll see several numbers on a pop-up window. The numbers tell you how many species have ever been seen at that location,

How many species are likely given the date, and how many species have been seen in whatever time window you chose, like the last seven days, for example. Want to find a specific bird? Cool. You can also do that using the explore function. There's a search bar where you can type in the species name. Then the map will show you only the hotspots where that species has been seen

in your chosen time frame and distance radius. And this is just so cool. I use this feature all the time. You can even shift the center of your search to a future destination rather than the default which is centered on your present location. So that's handy if you're headed to a different town tomorrow. And Google Maps is still your friend at this regional spatial scale. Use it to identify parks, forests, wetlands, and other green spaces nearby.

Clicking around can help you gauge access points, terrain, and proximity to where you're staying. As you're exploring your options, consider the diversity of habitats. If time is limited, prioritize locations like large national parks that usually feature a variety of habitat types, forest, grassland, wetland,

riparian zones, etc. Bird species are closely tied to habitat. So more habitat types generally means more species. That said, if you're targeting, specific birds, research their preferred habitats in advance and make sure your destination has what they need. Accessibility is another key factor. I mean, is this a rugged wilderness area requiring a long hike and class five rock climbing? Or is it a city park with nice paved trails? How about cost? Do you need to pay a fee? And are there hours of operation or particular days of the week when the place is

closed? For example, I got burned more than once when I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There's one major hotspot that every birder must go to when in this city. It's called Reserva Costanera Sur. This is a public park along the Rio de la Plata estuary. The park protects wetland and forest habitats and over 300 bird species have been seen there. On my first visit to Buenos Aires, I got all geared up to go birding at Reserva Costanera Sur, walking over there from my hotel, and, wah, wah, it was closed. It was a Monday, and the park is always closed on Mondays. And naturally, I was leaving early the next day and didn't have a chance to come back,

at least on that trip. But coincidentally, the only day I had to go birding there on my next visit was, you guessed it, a Monday. So I really try to remember to check for any potential close. closures like this when I'm planning my birding adventures. Another factor to consider, when is the area at its busiest? Because overcrowded parks, especially on weekends or holidays, may be less birdie, especially if there's noise, dogs, or heavy foot traffic.

So try to go when you think there will be fewer humans around to kill the birdie vibe. Also, check if any of your local hotspots have bird blinds or observation hides. These structures allow you to observe birds up close without disturbing them. They're especially effective when they have some water features or a feeding station, and most of them do. And yes, there is some debate about the ethics of feeding birds and having bird blinds like this, but there's no denying that hides and blinds can be great for getting good looks at birds and for getting photos. lately I've been doing a lot of these regional scale research steps because I have a friend coming to visit me here in Portland

he's a birder and he's never been to this part of the country before we don't have much time to go birding so I'm working on making a plan to have the most funnest most productive time possible even though I know my local hotspots pretty well I still like to use the eBird website and the mobile app to get a feel for what we can expect to find It's just fun to look at maps and get all excited My friend has a few target birds

So I'm focusing on where we might find those species For example, one of the targets is red-eyed vireo On the e-bird website, I went to the science page And then clicked status and trends And then I searched for red-eyed virio Looking at the map for where that species is expected to be On the exact week my friend will be here I see that

nope, no red-eyed virios, or super super unlikely anyway. That species shows up normally like a month later, and in any case it's also just a tough species to find in my local area. But my friend also hopes to see chestnut-backed chickadee and purple finch. I know that we'll have a better chance of finding those species. So the night before our day of birding, I'm going to look at the explore feature on the eBird mobile app. If I search for Purple Finch, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to see a lot of red-colored hotspots within a 30-mile radius. And those would be all the places where purple finches have been recorded by birders in the last seven days, for example. And that info will be what I'll use to help me and my friend decide where to concentrate our efforts. Okay, so there you are.

you've identified where you want to go birding. You've mapped out the sites you're going to visit today. Now you're ready to step into the field to get your boots dirty and start finding birds, IRL. And in case you're thinking I'm talking about IRL, the International Rugby League or Infrared Lasers or something, no, I mean IRL in real life. Once you're out in the habitat, it's time to flip the switch and go into birding mode. Of course, for some of us, the switch is permanently broken and we're stuck in birding mode forever. We can't turn it off. Whatever the case, in birding mode, we want to engage all our senses.

Well, maybe not all of our senses. Good luck trying to find birds by smelling or tasting them. But can you imagine, though? Hey guys, can you smell that? I'm pretty sure I just got a whiff of a willow flycatcher. It smells sort of like peppermint and, I don't know, like cat pee. Yeah, peppermint and cat pee. At this stage, the game is less about books and maps and digital tools

and more about situational awareness. You're tuning into the landscape, being present and really noticing what's around you. Your human brain and senses are well adapted for this kind of thing. Our ancestors, going back hundreds of thousands of years, relied on their situational awareness to find food and other resources. When we're birding, we're tapping into that primeval feeling of hunting for prey. It can make you feel really alive. And the good news is, the birds get to feel really alive too,

because unlike our ancient ancestors, we aren't out there looking for something to kill. We only want to appreciate the bird we track down and maybe snap a few photos of it. As you set out on foot to explore a natural area, start by getting a feel for the layout of the habitats. Sometimes there are trail signs that can help with this. Try to identify where different habitat types meet,

places like the edge of a forest where it opens up into grassland, or where a trail runs along a wetland or river. These ecotones or habitat edges often support high bird diversity. You'll get a mixture of species from both habitats. And visibility can be better on edges as well. Another rule of thumb pointed out by Pete Dunn in his book The Art of Bird Finding is, If you want birds, just add water. Birds need water, of course, and where there's water, there are often birds.

streams, ponds, marshes, and even small puddles or bird baths in dry areas can become hot spots for bird activity, especially in the early morning or during hot weather. Vegetation structure is also important. The more layers a habitat has, canopy, understory, shrub, layer, and ground cover, for example, the more niches there are for different birds to occupy. A forest with a well-developed understory, for example, will generally hold more species than one that's all tall trees with little underneath. So that's vegetation structure. Then there's the human element. How you move through the habitat matters. You want to try to channel your inner hunter-gatherer.

Move slowly, deliberately, and quietly. Avoid making any sudden movements. If you're like me and your natural tendency is to flail your arms around like you're trying to shoe away a swarm of angry hornets, well, don't do that. You're going to shoe away all the birds. It's a good idea to stop walking often, to just scan for movement and listen. Some of the best birding moments come not while walking, but when we're standing still. Stop at a patch of habitat that looks particularly rich, like maybe it's got a food resource like berries or some water or dense vegetation, and just watch and listen for a few minutes.

Use the sun to your advantage. Try to keep the sun at your back. This way, birds ahead of you are well lit, making it easier to see details and colors. Facing the sun often means squinting into silhouettes of birds and having a hard time seeing what's right in front of Now notice I haven't said anything about binoculars. You should have them ready, yes, but at this stage you can mostly forget about them. Because here's another key idea, once again from the book The Art of Bird Finding. Your eyes find your binoculars study. Because your naked eyes are far superior for noticing birds in the first place.

When you're searching visually, think of your eyes not as, spotlights or flashlights, but as floodlights. Take in the entire scene. You're looking for motion, not detail. Birds can be motionless for long periods, but even a small movement, a wing flick, a head turn, can give them away. And your peripheral vision is a superpower when you're birding. The retinas in our eyes are packed with motion-sensitive rod cells at the edges of our field of view. So it's these rod cells that are associated with our peripheral vision. So let your vision go a bit soft and unfocused while birding, and you'll start picking up those little movements that indicate a bird's presence. You'll see birds from the corner of your eye.

Sometimes you'll even spot birds by their shadows. A flicker on the ground might lead your eyes upward to a bird in the canopy, or to a raptor soaring overhead. And as you game more experience, you'll develop search images, mental templates for what different types of birds look like in different settings. This helps you scan and pick out even well-camplaged birds among the visual noise of nature. It's a skill that improves with time, with practice, and lots of field work. And studying field guides and bird apps in your vast amounts of free time can also help you develop your search images. Next up, let's talk about how to use your ears.

Because, lucky for us, birds are generally noisy little beasts. So your sense of hearing is also a powerful tool in bird finding. While your eyes are scanning the trees or shrubs or whatever, your ears are doing just as much work, sometimes more. In many birding situations, you'll hear a bird long before you see it. Especially in dense habitats, sound is often your only clue that a bird is even there, and maybe you'll never see the bird that made the sound. First, a simple rule. Be quiet.

Seriously, if you want to find all the birds, shut your big yapper. If you're birding with other people, try to save the chit-chat for later. I mean, do you really think now while you're out-burning is the appropriate time to explain to your friend why you think your pet rabbit is a sociopath? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that's stressful for you. And if your rabbit really is a remorseless sociopath with homicidal tendencies, the implications are indeed disturbing. But seriously, now is not the time. But if you really, really need to talk, at least whisper or use a soft voice. Because the quieter you are, the more bird sounds you'll hear, and the less likely you'll be to scare off birds with all that human noise. So, what are we listening for? Of course, there are songs, especially in the breeding season, when males are singing to attract mates or defend territory.

These are often loud and distinctive and relatively complex, and they can help you locate a bird even if it's hidden deep in foliage. But we also want to listen for calls, those short chirps, chips, buzzes, and notes that birds used to communicate. Some calls are contact calls, others are alarm calls, and so on. Many of them are soft and subtle, then you might only catch them if you and your surroundings are still and quiet. For example, I was out bird recently, and the very soft movements and calls of a bird caught my attention. They sounded a little something like this. When these sounds

When these sounds caught my ear, I stopped, looked up in the direction of the sound, and I was able to spot a white-breasted nut hatch, foraging a among the branches of a ponderosa pine, about 20 feet above me. I happened to be testing out a new field recorder that day, and I was eventually able to get a recording of that particular nut hatch singing, so a much louder vocalization. So just because, here's that recording. But with birds in general, we also have non-vocal sounds,

the flutter of wings, the rustle of a bird moving through dry leaves, the tapping of a woodpecker, the high-pitched whistle of a fast take-off. These can all be valuable clues that a bird is nearby. Like with that white-breasted nut hatch, besides the soft calls that initially caught my attention, the bird's claws made tiny scraping sounds as it clambered around on the pine branch. To help pinpoint the location of a bird you're hearing,

you can use something called triangulation. First, face the direction the sound of the sound coming from. Then move a few steps in another direction and listen again. You'll start to get a mental image of where the sound is centered. After two or three positions, you can usually narrow it down to a specific tree or bush. And here's another trick. Cup your hands behind your ears. It's a simple but surprisingly effective way to boost your hearing. This acts like a little satellite dish for each ear, helping you pick up faint or distant sounds and improving your ability to detect directionality. And one more important point about hearing. As we age, we tend to

lose the ability to hear higher frequencies. And unfortunately, there are many birds that sing in those very high ranges. I'm thinking about birds like brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglet, cedar waxwing, black pole warbler, and so on. If you notice you're missing certain bird songs that others seem to hear, this might be why. And finally, pay attention to the behavior of other birds. If small birds like chickadees or tits are suddenly making a fuss, calling loudly, hopping or fluttering around agitatedly, it might mean a predator is nearby. These mobbing behaviors can lead you to a hundred,

hawk or owl that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. So you can let other birds find birds for you. Now we find ourselves at the smallest spatial scale in birding. We've walked deep into a patch of habitat and we are, for example, trying to locate a particular bird in just one tree or bush or on one stretch of lake shore among the boulders on a rock outcropping or whatever. Once you've spotted a bird in the habitat, it's time to bring your binoculars into play.

It's time to get on the bird, as we say. Binoculars are amazing tools. We can easily take them for granted. But they would seem like magic to one of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, right? That ancestor would probably have traded 20 cows, his favorite rock, and his three youngest sons for a pair of binoculars. And if binoculars had never even been invented, it's hard to imagine that birding would be a thing. So yeah, binoculars are great. But let's remember, your eyes find your binoculars

study. Because one downside of binoculars when it comes to finding birds is that they narrow your field of view dramatically. So before you raise them, you want to lock onto the bird with your naked eyes first. Don't take your eyes off the bird and then bring the binoculars up to your face while staying focused on that exact spot. This way, when the binoculars meet your eyes, the bird should be, theoretically, right there in your view, being all cute and feathery and stuff. Congratulations, you found a bird. From the continental scale down to one branch in one tree, you applied many, many skills to arrive at this beautiful moment. Rejoice!

But it's not always that easy, is it? What if the bird is some combination of small, far away, camouflaged, or surrounded by a clutter of branches? And this happens all the time. Even when you know the bird is in there, somewhere, it can be hard to actually get the bird in your binoculars. And this is where a technique called landmarking comes in. Instead of trying to find the bird directly,

locate a big, obvious feature near where you last saw the bird. This landmark might be a distinctive branch, a bright cluster of flowers, a rock, a fence post, a human skull, or a discarded burrito wrapper flapping seductively in the breeze. bring your binoculars up and find that unmissable landmark first, then move your view slowly relative to that landmark based upon where the bird was, left, right, above, or below. With practice, you can get really good at quickly choosing a landmark

and then getting it in your binoculars. Sometimes, or often, birds move before you get your binoculars up. If that happens, resist the urge to scan wildly with the way. your binoculars, jerking them back and forth in desperation. Your odds of randomly refinding a small bird are low. Instead, lower your binoculars, relocate the bird with your naked eyes and repeat the process. Eyes find binoculars study. Let's talk briefly about binocular specs. Many birders use 8x or 10x magnification. Higher magnification gives a closer view, yes, but comes with trade-offs, a narrower field of view and more visible handshake.

You'll also get a slightly dimmer image in low light. For general birding, 8x42 binoculars seem to strike a great balance of magnification, field of view, brightness, and steadiness. But personally, I have used 10 by 42s for years. Not because I feel passionately about this configuration or anything, but I don't know, I just, I like to see more detail on the birds. If your hands shake a bit when you're looking through your binoculars, and that's common for many people, including me,

try these stability tips. Tuck your elbows in against your sides, against your torso. This forms a stable triangle and reduces arm fatigue. Your arms in this position are forming a shape sort of like the wall-mounted brackets that hold up a bookshelf. You can also lean against something solid, like a tree, a boulder, or a car to get more stability. Now, I know I said multiple times that eyes find binoculars study, but let's briefly touch on the idea of scanning with binoculars. This is one exception.

If you're scanning a shoreline, grassland, canopy of distant treetops, or open ocean, using your binoculars to pan systematically across the area can be productive. This is especially true when birds are far away because their motion appears subtle. If you can get your hands on a spotting scope, that's an even better tool for scanning. If you've never seen one, a spotting scope is a compact telescope-like device that you mount on a tripod. It's way more stable than binoculars and has much higher magnification. Most of them have the ability to zoom from something like 20x to 60s, But let's go back to binoculars. In dense environments, like the forest with all those branches and leaves, you can try the focus sweep technique. If you know roughly where a bird is,

but can't see it clearly, gently roll your focus knob back and forth. This adjusts your focus through different depths, like tuning a radio. Um, what's that? You say you're... young to know what it's like to turn a physical dial on a radio? Well, if that's the case, I suppose you can think of a focus sweep on your binoculars like like scrolling through videos on YouTube or TikTok until you find the right one. Or maybe like swiping through profiles on a dating app? I don't know.

Just let's forget the analogy. Just roll your focus knob back and forth to move your focus through different depths until with some luck, the bird you're looking for pops crisply into view, even if it was somewhat hidden among leaves and branches. All right, so that was binoculars and scopes. Finally, let's move on to clothing and your field presence. Birds have incredible eyesight, and your appearance and movement can affect your success in finding them. When you're choosing your outfit for the day, avoid bright colors, and especially avoid white. White is not only super flashy and conspicuous, it's often seen as a signal of alarm in nature. So go for earth tones, soft greens, browns,

grays. We're talking khaki, olive green, that sort of thing. You also want to avoid noisy fabrics that rustle or swish when you walk. Synthetic materials are often the worst offenders in this regard. Because you want to move like a ninja through the bush. If you and your clothing are quiet, you're better able to hear the sounds of birds and to sneak up on them. If you're birding in open country, like grasslands, wetlands, or deserts, it's often easier to spot birds. But they can see you more easily as well, because you're a lumbering bipedal ape. The birds are going to spot you coming from a mile away. But if you act cool and unthreatening, many birds will relax and let you get relatively close. So in

open country, you want to move slowly, and having spotted a bird that you'd like to get a better look at, avoid the temptation of walking directly toward it. Take an angled approach instead, like in a broad arc. Move gently and watch for any signs of nervous behavior. If your bird gets fidgety or starts staring you down, just pause. Let the bird chill out. If it goes back to foraging, preening, or resting, it's probably decided that, for the moment anyway, you aren't a threat. Then you can continue your approach. If you get too greedy, though, there's going to be some distance at which the bird will have had enough of you. It will fly, swim, or run away. It's going to flush.

Flush distances vary among bird species, among individuals, and under different conditions. Birding is often about timing. Knowing when to go birding, both in terms of time of day and time of year, can make all the difference. Like earlier, when I researched the likelihood of finding a red-eyed vireo for my friends life list. It's the wrong time of year to go looking for that bird in my region. So with respect to timing, let's start by considering the daily activity patterns of birds. They tend to be most active during the early morning. This is the best time to find birds because birds are hungry

after a night of fasting and they're actively foraging. And in many cases, they're singing, especially during the breeding season. So early morning is the best, but late and afternoon and early evening can also be productive, as birds get active again before settling down for the night. In contrast, midday is often slow. As the temperature rises, birds seek shelter from the heat and sun. They're less vocal and more stationary. So you, as a birder, you could choose to take a siesta yourself in the middle of the day, or have lunch or whatever. But if you want to keep birding through the middle of the day, you might want to switch to different habitats. For example, wetlands, shorelines, and sometimes shaded forest areas are where birds might still be

active even in midday. Some exceptions to this pattern of daily activity are soaring birds like hawks, eagles, vultures, cranes, and storks. These species often rely on thermals, rising columns of warm air to help them fly efficiently. Thermals take time to develop in the morning, so these birds tend to be most active from mid to late morning onward. If you're birding along the coast, pay attention to the tides. Low tide can expose feeding areas for shore birds, while incoming tides may push birds closer to the shore, offering better viewing opportunities. High tide, on the other hand, might disperse birds or move them to inaccessible areas. So that was a little bit about daily activity patterns.

Now let's zoom out to the seasonal scale. Bird presence and behavior change significantly over the course of the year, depending on migration, breeding, and wintering cycles. In temperate regions, spring and fall migrations are dynamic and exciting times to bird. New species can appear overnight and diversity in any one place can be very high. Winter tends to be more stable. There are fewer species overall in many places, but the mixture of species is more predictable. There are single species flocks and often mixed species flocks, where birds of many species are foraging together.

Summer, depending where you are, can be relatively quiet in terms of bird activity and bird vocalizations, especially once the breeding season winds down. Many birds go into a post-breeding stealth mode, staying quiet and hidden. And an important thing to keep in mind is we shouldn't assume that all birds follow the same calendar that we do. Birds don't look at the calendar and say, oh, look, it's March 21st, the official first day of spring. I guess I better start flying north now. It doesn't work like that. Some species start migrating much earlier or later than you might expect. For example, some shorebirds have already finished their breeding efforts and begin heading south by late June, even while other birds are just starting to nest.

Likewise, certain waterfowl begin their northward journeys in January or February, so what we would consider winter as they follow the line of melting snow and ice to the north. The takeaway here is that birds follow their own biological clocks. These clocks or calendars vary among types of birds and among species. What we're talking about here broadly is phenology, P-H-E-N-O-L-O-G-Y. Phanology is the study of when things like migration, nesting, and egg-laying happen during the year and how these timings change with the seasons or climate. To better understand these phenology patterns, you can always look at the little maps in your field guide. But there are also a couple great digital tools you should know about.

First, there's eBird's status and trends maps, which I've already mentioned. These show animated migration and abundance patterns for individual species. So these are like the maps in your field guide, but way better, like on steroids. Then we have something I haven't talked about yet, and that is Birdcast. This is a website managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornitha. which also runs eBird and all of that, Birdcast uses weather radar data to create online tools that predict and track bird migration, including real-time and forecast maps, as well as migration alerts and this dashboard that shows the nighttime migration patterns

for anywhere in the U.S. And yeah, in case you didn't know, weather radar systems are able to detect the mass movements of birds, which is a pretty amazing thing. So, for example, I just checked, and birdcast shows that an estimated 23,900 birds flew over my county last night. And birdcast tells me which species are most likely to be among those nocturnal migrants at this time of year. Blackthroated gray warbler, Hammond's flycatcher, Casson's Vireo, Northern House Wren, and so on. And it's still early in the migration season, so there are many more waves of migrants to come.

But wow, isn't that cool? Isn't that wild to have access to data like this? So, yeah, if it's migration season where you are right now, you've got to check out Birdcast. I think it only works in the U.S. or maybe in Canada, so keep that in mind. Now, remember we're talking about seasonal patterns in birds, and how an understanding of those patterns can help you find the birds you're looking for. That brings us to two other phenomena related to migration. First is the existence of migrant traps. A migrant trap is an isolated patch of habitat that acts like a magnet for migrating birds,

especially when surrounded by non-habitat like water, desert, farmland, or urban development. Migrant traps are great places to check during migration seasons. These places are usually well known among local birds. birders for having high diversity. For example, in my home state of Oregon, we have this big wetland complex in the southeast called Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Well, the refuge headquarters has a bunch of trees and water packed together in a small area, whereas most of the surrounding landscape is relatively dry and treeless. So the Malheur refuge headquarters attracts large numbers of migrating songbirds.

The songbirds are flying overhead, they look down and see this oasis of greenery, and they decide to stop there for a while. Looks like a nice place. If you're birding in the Malheur area in the migration season, one of your best bets for finding a high diversity of species is to head to the refuge headquarters. And similarly, Central Park in New York City

is a world-famous migrant trap. The other phenomenon to know know about is fallouts. A fallout is a sudden, massive concentration of migrating birds that are forced down to the ground by storms. If you're birding during migration season, remember that storms can trigger some truly unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime birding days, especially near coastlines or major flyways. So you want to pay attention to short-term events in the local area. Sudden storms, droughts, wildfires, and food bonanzas, like a bumper crop of berries or a mass emergence of insects. Any of these can dramatically concentrate bird activity.

So keep an eye on weather forecasts and understand how they might influence bird activity. Birds often lay low before or during storms, but they become highly active just after one passes. Similarly, a stretch of cold or wet weather, followed by a clear day, can trigger a flurry of feeding and movement. Birding is often a shared experience, and for good reason. More people means more eyes and ears on the landscape, and possibly more fun. When done well, birding with a group can be incredibly efficient, because someone in the group might a quick flash of movement, or recognize a song that you didn't notice. As a birding tour leader, this happens to me all the time.

Someone in the back of the group spots a bird that the rest of us just walked right past. So, in a group, you can sort of cover more ground mentally, even if you're all standing in the same place. You can survey more of the environment with your senses all at once. This again makes me think about our ancient ancestors, working together. cooperating in a hunting party. But group birding isn't without its downsides. For example, more people can often mean more noise, crunching footsteps, rustling clothing, coughing, or conversations about sociopathic rabbits. And it's more likely that someone is going to make a sudden movement. All of this can disturb birds and make it harder to hear their subtle calls

or to spot skittish species. If you're trying to maximize your chances of finding birds, it helps to enter a kind of stealth mode as a group. You want everyone to agree that you're going to whisper, move slowly, and pause often. And then there's communication, one of the most important skills when trying to find birds in a group.

If you spot a bird, you need to describe where it is quickly and clearly if you want to share it with the other people in your group. It isn't all that helpful to just shout, It's over there, there! Instead, it's often more helpful to use the landmark technique. If you are the one who spotted the bird, you want to identify a primary landmark,

a big, obvious feature that everyone can find through their binoculars. That might be a tree trunk, a bright sign, a large rock, or whatever. Once your partners find the landmark, use the clock method to give them a relative direction. Like, the bird is at 2 o'clock from the split in the tree, five feet out. So you're giving a distance as well. And you can describe the behavior. It's hopping around just above the thick branch.

So this is a lot better than just saying, yeah, the bird is in, you know, that tree over there. No, no, not that tree, the other tree. Yeah, that sort of thing can generate a lot of frustration. Also, when you're guiding others to get on a bird, it helps to encourage patience. Because birds move, a lot. Sometimes they vanish for a moment and then reappear nearby. So I often say, just watch that area for movement. Just watch for movement.

Because even a little quick tail flick or head turn can help someone lock on. Now, I'm not going to lie, I love birding alone. Birding solo can feel quieter and more immersive. But that said, group birding has its own advantages, assuming everyone's tuned in and working together. And they often are. Birders often work really well together. I've had countless wonderful experiences birding with my groups over the years.

And those moments are even more enjoyable because I got to share them with other people. Now, there are two last birding tools slash techniques I want to briefly touch on. Pishing and playback. Pishing is the act of making certain sounds like, to attract birds. Pishing sounds mimic certain call types and often trigger curiosity, especially in certain species like chickadees or titmice. If done sparingly, Pishing can be a helpful way to bring birds into view, particularly in dense undergrowth. Playback, on the other hand, involves playing recorded bird songs or calls through a speaker or phone.

While this can be very effective, it also has major ethical concerns. Birds may respond to playback thinking it's a rival intruding on their territory, especially during the breeding season. And that can cause them serious stress or interrupt important behaviors. The way Pete Dunn put it in his book really struck a chord with me. Quote, by playing a territorial song in a bird's territory, you have, in biological essence, broken down the door of a bird's home and screamed,

I'm going to steal your property and your wife, end quote. Yeah, so if you think of it that way, it's pretty cruel to use playback. But Pete Dunn goes on to add, quote, there are times when limited, targeted playbacks are acceptable. For example, when used judiciously by an experienced tour leader to entice forest birds into the open for momentary views by a group,

instead of putting patrons at risk and disrupting a forest environment by charging off trail. End quote. So, if you choose to use playback, I implore you to do it responsibly, respectfully, and only rarely. In sensitive habitats or with endangered species, it's best avoided altogether. Finding birds. is an art, a science, and a set of skills to practice. And the more you do it, the better you'll get. Because there's so much bird data out there, you can even assess your skills to see how well you did on a particular birding walk. Because if you're birding at an e-bird hot spot,

you can see how many of the expected bird species you were able to find. That's not a bad way to sort of quantify your bird-finding skills if you're interested in that sort of thing. But hey, maybe for you the goal is just to get out there, enjoy nature, and spot some lovely birds. That's fantastic. But even in that goal, I think you can increase your enjoyment by honing your bird-finding skills. As I started this episode off, I said that one of the great things about birds is that they're everywhere. Well, one of the great things about nature in general is how unpredictable it can be. There's always an element of chaos and randomness in nature.

So, no matter how good you get at finding birds, you aren't going to find them all. And I think that's a good thing. I mean, if we just found every bird every time, where would be the fun in that? The birds you don't find are part of the experience, too. They remain out there as hidden treasures, possibilities for future moments of discovery and joy. The birds we didn't find today give us extra motivation to go out birding the next time again and again. Wow, I thought that maybe this would be one of my shorter episodes, but nope. I guess I had a lot to say on this topic after all. My script here is almost 10,000 words.

Anyway, I hope you found the episode interesting and that it eventually helps you find more birds. If you like what I'm doing here on the Science of Birds podcast, if you value this kind of content, please consider supporting the show by joining my Patreon community. The support of my patrons is literally what has made it possible for me to justify spending all the time and effort to keep making these episodes. So I am incredibly grateful to my supporters. I want to welcome the newest members of my Patreon community. Kale, Arimbi, Lou, Trinity Swan, Britt, Ella Brand, and Rhonda.

Thank you all so much, and I'm thrilled that you enjoy the podcast so much. Thank you. If you, my friend, would like to support the podcast, just check out my Patreon page at patreon.com slash science of birds. There's also a support the show link in the show. notes. To avoid paying more and having Apple take a big chunk of the money, however, please sign up using something other than the Patreon app on an Apple mobile device. You can also shoot me an email if you have something you'd like to share with me, your thoughts on the show,

an anecdote about a great birding moment you had, or maybe you want to tell me about the psychological issues that your pet is currently dealing with. Whatever the case, my email address is Ivan at Science of Birds.com. This is episode 115. You can check out the show notes for the episode on the Science of Birds website, Scienceofbirds.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Ivan Philipson and true fact about me, I am horribly, horribly allergic to poison oak, a plant in the cashew family with the scientific name toxicodendron diversolobum. This is a native plant on the west coast of North America. I've lived in this region my entire life, so this plant has caused me some serious misery. If even the tip of a leaf or a twig of poison oak touches my skin, I'm going

to break out in oozing nasty sores about a week later. They're super itchy, they itch like crazy, and they're going to take weeks to finally go away. So I have gotten really good at spotting poison oak. You might say I've developed a search image for this plant. So thankfully, it's been many years since I had my last nasty run-in with it. Many other people are allergic to poison oak, too, but then there are others that have no problem with it whatsoever. Allergies, man. They're weird, aren't they? Anyway, I wish you a lovely day. Until next time, peace.