Category:

Featured

BirdingFeaturedPhotographySouth America

Tanagers are one big, beautiful family of birds. Except when they’re not?

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

      For almost an hour, I decided I had a new favorite bird. It was a blend of bright yellow and black with a little yellow toupee on its head and deep blue wings. This was an Orange-bellied Euphonia, and a member of the tanager family.

Orange-bellied Euphonia. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal.

      An hour later, a new favorite took its place. This one was deep blue all over, except for a a touch of black on its wings and a black mask on its face, punctuated by the brightest red eyes. It turned out to be Masked Flowerpiercer, and it, too, was a tanager.

Masked Flowerpiercer

Golden Tanager

      Within minutes I was won over by a new bird, which arrived in a flash of yellow before taking a perch just a few feet away. That was long enough to let me stare in wonder at the laced pattern on its wings that flowed up to a bright golden yellow on its head with an exclamation point of a black dot under its eyes. This was a Golden Tanager, the most striking bird I’d see for at least another hour.

     It’s tough to keep a favorite for long in Ecuador, one of the world’s hot spots for birds of all kinds. But on our recent trip there, it was impossible not to be swept away by the rainbow of tanagers we encountered over 10 days of travel along the country’s northern half. It was my first trip here, and so  keeping up with the names and families of hundreds of species I was seeing for the first time was hopeless. What I did notice was this: Almost every one of what I found to be the most captivating species was related to the sprawling carnival of birds that fall into the tanager family.

Blue-winged Mountain Tanager

     Only when I got home and had a chance to study up on tanagers did I realize what a complicated family this has always been. When I talked to one of the world’s experts on bird identification, I learned that there’s no end to the disagreements, rearranging and new ideas about what is and what isn’t a tanager. Frank Gill, a former chief scientist at the National Audubon Society who has devoted much of his career to sorting out the families of birds, said the tanager family has always been a conundrum. “So it’s messy,” said Gill. “It’s quite, quite messy.”

Moss-backed Tanager

      Gill laughed and remembered a story from his undergraduate studies years ago. “I had this professor and he’d always ask us this question, ‘What is a tanager?’ ” said Gill, and the class would get into a discussion about the boundaries of this family of birds. “So the question has been hanging around for a long time.”

     Dan Lebbin, vice president of threatened species for the American Bird Conservancy with whom we traveled on our trip to Ecuador, said there’ve always been disagreement about who is and isn’t a tanager. “Tanagers have been historically a grab-bag of similar looking and often colorful, fruit-eating birds,” he said. But for years, that was based on assumptions that are now being challenged by genetic testing that discovered some members thought to be part the family actually weren’t related. The two common tanagers in the Eastern U.S., for instance, the Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, have turned out to belong in the cardinal family.  It turns out that one of the Ecuador tanager species, my first favorite, the Orange-bellied Euphonia, is also thought to be a finch, not a tanager.

        Keeping the tanagers straight is particularly dizzying in Ecuador because they can be flowerpiercers and honeycreepers and still be part of the tanager family.  It doesn’t help that this is the second largest bird family. In Ecuador alone, there are about 65 species of tanager. Here are some of the spectacular birds we saw on this recent trip:

       The questions about who precisely should be in the tanager family will be coming to a head as the organizations that oversee classifications go to work with the spread of genetic research that shows in no uncertain terms which of the birds are part of the family — and which actually belong to other groups. Gill said he’s not looking forward to sorting through whether to consider changing the names of some of these birds.

Masked Flowerpiercer

    But Dan Lebbin said the precise relationships between these birds are important to understand the evolution of bird families and to track bird populations in a time of dramatic change. “None of this is important to most people,” he said. “But it is important to understand biodiversity and life on our planet, to understand how species’ lineages evolve and major patterns of evolution and bio-geography.”

Glistening-green Tanager

     So in the end, the tanagers not only captured my attention by the hour. They also launched me off on a worthy discovery. Now that I’ve started learning the tanagers from the flowerpiercers, I hope they don’t get booted from the family.

 

Here’s another in our posts on the birds of Ecuador, this one about the wealth of hummingbirds. 

 

 

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingFeaturedPhotography

They unlock the Earth’s treasury of hummingbirds. Does it help or hurt the birds?

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Mashpi, Ecuador

     We’ve spent so many hours chasing hummingbirds over the years that I was caught by surprise when one of these tiny birds turned the tables and landed on my outstretched hand. Light as a penny at about three grams, this curious little creature felt like nothing more than a puff of air. It sat staring at me as if it had a question to ask.

Violet-tailed Sylph. Top photo is a Blue-chested Hummingbird.

     We were midway up the Andes mountains of Ecuador on a swing through one of the richest parts of the world for all kinds of birds, from toucans to tanagers to Andean Condors. Yet nothing came close to  the treasury of hummingbirds. More than 130 species — the most found anywhere on Earth — fill the rainforests, fields and hills of northern Ecuador.

     In places, there are so many hummingbird feeders that the frenzied birds can mistake you for a plant, and it turned out the bird I encountered did have a question. “He’s trying to see if you’re a flower,” said Juan Carlos Crespo, a biologist who works with the Jocotoco Foundation that was leading our group.

Crowned Woodnymph

The sheer breadth of hummingbirds here is head-spinning. They come in every size and color, some with long trailing tails that end in tiny rudders, some with curiously long peaks that stretch the lengths of their bodies. But it’s the plumage that is most impressive. Depending on the angle, the tones change in the light, some as bright as neon, each new variety seemingly more beautiful than the last.

     We were traveling in Ecuador to gather material for our upcoming book on conservation work across the Americas. We tagged along with the leaders of the American Bird Conservancy as the nonprofit works to protect key species and land across South America. But there was always time to do a little birding, so we stopped at a string of what you could only call bird gardens, where local guides have set up a different kinds of feeders to draw birds, including some of the most elusive species you otherwise would never see. 

Black-tailed Trainbearer

      It was impossible to keep up with all the species without constant coaching from the veterans traveling with us. In one stop, the birds taking off and leaving from one giant round feeder looked like a small airport, as if they were used to taking turns at the hummingbird bar. Here’s a video of that scene:

Andean Emerald

      Guides have figured out what kinds of foods the birds like best and learned ways of attracting a rainbow of tanagers, toucans, and parrots. We ran into disagreements about whether these practices were helpful or harmful to the birds. On the one hand, it builds public support for conservation. On the other, does it make birds rely on food from humans? 

      Crespo, who has researched birds in North and South America, said he was bothered by the spread of feeders since sometimes dozens of them are spread around lodges, hotels and bird parks. He says feeders aren’t in themselves a problem, so long as there’s not too many. “There need to be some rules about them,” he said.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

        Paul Greenfield, one of Ecuador’s leading bird artists who’s helped build a number of conservation foundations across the country, said he dismissed the concerns about harming the birds by feeding them. He’s impressed with the spread of small entrepreneurs. “You see them everywhere,” he said. “Now there’s more people interested in birds.”

        Mike Parr, president of the American Bird Conservancy, said the trip made him wonder why the U.S. doesn’t do a better job of experimenting with how to let people get closer to birds. “We haven’t adopted this kind of approach in the United States. Most of the refuges, you have to look at birds through a telescope from a long way away,” he said. “Instead of bringing people closer to wildlife, we’re sort of keeping people away.”

Booted Racket Tail

 

Collared Inca

      We ended up thinking the birds benefitted far more than they were set back. (Here are a couple of links that explore the issues behind feeding birds — including Audubon Society guides on backyard feeders — as well as the use of playback of songs and calls to attract birds.) In a country with so many species, the bird parks and lodges touch just the smallest fraction of the birds that are out there. Some studies even show that where hummingbird feeders are plentiful, the overall pollination goes up in the region, a sign of nature’s health.  We came home thinking that other countries should be following Ecuador’s leads. 

     Hummingbirds have always been among our favorite birds, and we’ve searched out as many of North America’s 15 or so species in our travels, mostly in the Southwest. Some of the most popular Flying Lessons posts have been about hummingbirds, including this one about the battles that break out around some feeders, and this one about how some hummingbirds have stopped migrating because of changes in climate. But we’d never seen anything like Ecuador’s breadth of hummingbird species. Here’s a look at some of the species we saw across the northern portion of Ecuador.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

12 comments
3 FacebookTwitterEmail
ConservationFeaturedPhotography

Pittsburgh’s National Aviary takes you around the world in birds

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

On our way home from traveling 15,000 miles chasing birds all across the country, we stopped at a park in downtown Pittsburgh and came across the broadest collection of birds we’d seen anywhere in one place.

It was the National Aviary, which could be called the international aviary. Hundreds of birds from six continents pass so close by in many of the chambers that you can feel the wind from their beating wings. Some of the world’s most precious birds – Andean Condors, Birds-of-Paradise, African Penguins, toucans, hornbills and cuckoos – share the stage with more common owls, gulls, doves and pigeons.

Andean Condor

With fall migration behind us, we thought this would be a good time to consider how aviaries and zoos can help birders get through the slower times and open up the wider world of birds we can’t see otherwise. Our travels let us visit a series of zoos, bird parks and indoor aviaries along with dozens of conservation projects, research centers and bird hotspots. While we all prefer to see our birds in the wild, institutions such as the National Aviary play a distinct role in a time when birds are in trouble.

Demoiselle Crane

“It is very powerful to see a bird, like a Guam Kingfisher which is extinct in the wild, up close, just feet away from you, and to understand that this bird is one of only a couple hundred left in the world,’’ said Steve Latta, the director of conservation at the aviary. “It gives visitors a sense of how urgently needed conservation efforts are.’’

The aviary sponsors conservation projects around the world, including on some of the toughest challenges for birds. It’s researching ways of battling back against invasive species in the Pacific Islands, studying how Andean Condors in the mountains of South America react to climate change, and exploring migration across the hemisphere through the experiences of the Louisiana Waterthrush. 

Continue Reading
1 comment
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingFeaturedPhotography

What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Only when we slowed the video way down and then blew it up could we see the ferocity of the encounter: The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovered above its competitor, then slammed bill-first into the female like a tiny gladiator.

The clash sent the two tumbling into the air. (See the video below.) Once again, the alpha male had done his job in the survival-of-the-fittest world of this smallest, most acrobatic of species.

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird comes in for a landing on a favorite feeder. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Much of the daily routines of nature are invisible to us. They take place deep in the woods, fields or wetlands, often at speeds that obscure any real details. Even the most avid birders get mere glimpses of how birds interact.

But the spread of hummingbird feeders all across the U.S. each summer doesn’t just help support these birds. In exchange for a supply of hummingbird sugar water, we get a close-up look at the way birds establish territories, settle into pecking orders, help and compete with one another and fight to survive.

We’re closing the year by publishing the most popular posts of 2021 — which was our year of travel across the country. Each weekend, we’ll run an updated version of the original story, a kind of tour of the birdscape from North Carolina to Hawaii, Florida to Wyoming. We’ll feature Snow Geese, Sandpipers, Hummingbirds, Tree Swallows, Pileated Woodpeckers and Palilas, the rare the Hawaiian honeycreeper. We hope you’ll come along with us on the tour. But if you’d like to skip ahead or go back and read one you missed, click on the links on these birds. Wishing you a wonderful year of birding ahead. 
      Here’s a video about the fierce competition playing out around the feeders:

Continue Reading
5 comments
6 FacebookTwitterEmail
FeaturedSpeciesVideo

It’s springtime — and these Pileated Woodpeckers get down to business

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

We’ve always been drawn to Pileated Woodpeckers. Who can resist these magnificent birds, with their striking yodel, two-foot wingspan and bright red crests set against more than a foot of jet-black plumage?

The male Pileated outside its nest. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal.

So when two of these woodpeckers showed up for several days running in a dead tree right next-door to our campsite, we were captivated. It was hard to get anything done; they’d sound off a dozen times a day, and I’d have to drop everything and see what was going on.

The female outside their nest cavity

 

Something was up indeed: It’s springtime – and we had a romance brewing before our prying eyes.

We’ve always had to catch Pileated Woodpeckers in brief glimpses when they’d appear on a birding walk, or zip by overhead on their way to somewhere else. This encounter turned out to be different. The pair decided to build their nesting cavity 30 steps from our spot on the edge of the busy Land Yacht Harbor Airstream park in Central Florida where we’re spending a few weeks. They seemed used to people and didn’t mind my keeping up with their progress.

They chose a tall dead pine and started chopping out their cavity 25 feet up the trunk. The male did most of the work in the beginning, then the female took over. She was tireless, working away for hours at a time, then picking up mouthfuls of chips and tossing them out the front door as if spitting tobacco juice.

Here’s a video of the two working on their nest, to the Beatle’s love song, “I will:” 

 

Continue Reading
1 comment
2 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingFeaturedPhotography

What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

We’re winding up the year sharing the most popular  — and we hope most compelling — Flying Lesson stories from 2020.  Most of the posts are profiles of bird encounters, including this story, photos and video of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds we spent time with this summer.  

Only when we slowed the video way down and then blew it up could we see the ferocity of the encounter: The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovered above its competitor, then slammed bill-first into the female like a tiny gladiator.

The clash sent the two tumbling into the air. (See the video below.) Once again, the alpha male had done his job in the survival-of-the-fittest world of this smallest, most acrobatic of species.

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird comes in for a landing on a favorite feeder. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Much of the daily routines of nature are invisible to us. They take place deep in the woods, fields or wetlands, often at speeds that obscure any real details. Even the most avid birders get mere glimpses of how birds interact.

But the spread of hummingbird feeders all across the U.S. each doesn’t just help support these birds. In exchange for a supply of hummingbird sugar water, we get a close-up look at the way birds establish territories, settle into pecking orders, help and compete with one another and fight to survive.

      Here’s a video about the fierce competition playing out around the feeders:

Continue Reading
3 comments
4 FacebookTwitterEmail
BirdingFeaturedPhotography

What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Only when we slowed the video way down and then blew it up could we see the ferocity of the encounter: The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovered above its competitor, then slammed bill-first into the female like a tiny gladiator.

The clash sent the two tumbling into the air. (See the video below.) Once again, the alpha male had done his job in the survival-of-the-fittest world of this smallest, most acrobatic of species.

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird comes in for a landing on a favorite feeder. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Much of the daily routines of nature are invisible to us. They take place deep in the woods, fields or wetlands, often at speeds that obscure any real details. Even the most avid birders get mere glimpses of how birds interact.

But the spread of hummingbird feeders all across the U.S. each summer doesn’t just help support these birds. In exchange for a supply of hummingbird sugar water, we get a close-up look at the way birds establish territories, settle into pecking orders, help and compete with one another and fight to survive.

      Here’s a video about the fierce competition playing out around the feeders:

Continue Reading
2 comments
3 FacebookTwitterEmail
Beverly's Birding BasicsBirdingFeatured

Beverly’s Basics: Four tips for getting the most from your birding binoculars

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Heading Title

Last of three parts

So my friend gets interested in birding and tries out some binoculars. Then she comes to a complete standstill. “There’s something wrong with my eyes,” she says. “Binoculars just aren’t for me.”

This scenario is not uncommon, and it makes me want to shout: Don’t give up! There are tricks! Here, let me show you …

The truth of the matter is that learning to use binoculars is not easy. Even experts like Andrew Farnsworth, a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, agree.

“The idea of them is simple: I can magnify what I’m seeing? Awesome. Sign me up,” Farnsworth said. “But it can be really difficult at first.

“Trying to stay focused on the bird, and then bring the tool up to your eyes is not the easiest thing to learn,” Farnsworth told my husband Anders in a recent interview.

Binoculars can utterly transform what you see, as with this Great Blue Heron’s piercing stare.

The infuriating thing to me is that you buy binoculars, and they don’t come with instructions. Therefore you assume it’s easy and automatic. When it’s not, you think something must be wrong with you.

When I was starting out as a birder — reading guidebooks and casually scouting for resources — nothing I found touched on the basics of using binoculars to see birds. But as I point out in my post I’ll call “Why Binoculars,” they simply transform your birding experience into something glorious.

So, without further digression, here are my four essential tips for learning to bird with binoculars. They work, and it’s worth it. I promise.

1) Get set up

First, adjust the eye cups. If you wear glasses or sunglasses, screw the cups all they way in.

If you don’t wear glasses, screw the eye cups all the way out. Don’t press the eye cups too hard against your eye sockets or it will distort the image.

Everyone’s face is different, and you want your binoculars to fit. Pull the binoculars barrels apart as far as they’ll go, then lift them up to your eyes. Now squeeze the barrels together until you only see one image through both eyes — a perfect circle.

This usually puts the barrels closer together than you might expect.

Once you’re seeing just the one image, find a good spot on your face for the barrels to rest securely. This is usually the top bone of your eye socket (brow ridge). If you’re wearing glasses, you might find you can use the top rim of the frames a “shelf.”  For me this helps keep the binoculars steady for longer periods.

This is the last of three posts on binoculars, the central equipment for birders. The first piece was about the why good binoculars will change your life on the trail. The second  post addressed how to buy your first pair of binoculars. These and other posts aimed at the new birder can be found on Beverly’s Birding Basic page here. 

2) How to focus

There are two wheels to adjust. The one in the middle is the focus wheel. Look at something stationary in the middle distance with both eyes open, and move the wheel to bring it into focus.

The details of Belted Kingfishers, skittish birds you can’t usually get close to, fill your viewfinders with a good pair of binoculars.

It’s important to keep an index finger on the focus wheel and learn to adjust it as you move your eyes from one object to another. Even the smallest movement can put an object out of focus, and twirling the wheel is necessary. Eventually this will feel natural, and you’ll adjust the focus wheel without even thinking about it.

The second wheel is called the diaopter and is usually part of the right-hand eyepiece. It needs adjustment only once. The purpose of the diopter is to compensate for the differences between your eyes. No two eyes are the same, and don’t have the same ability to focus.

To adjust the diaopter, put a lens cap over the right barrel. Keep both eyes open and adjust the focus wheel. Next, put the cap on the left barrel and, keeping both eyes open without squinting, use the diopter adjustment to bring your view into sharp focus.

     Click here for an excellent, very detailed tutorial from Birdwatching.com on how do each of these focusing steps and why they’re necessary.

3) How to find the bird

Locating a bird through binoculars isn’t necessarily automatic. There’s a disorientation that comes in the instant your eyes go from a wide, faraway view to such a close-up, magnified view. It tend to scramble your brain.

With practice, you sort of train your brain. Or you get used to the disparity. (If I go for a month or so without birding,  my brain has to be trained all over again.)

Mockingbirds are good species to start out with.

It’s best to starting with birds that remain mostly still for long stretches while they’re hunting, feeding or resting. Herons, hawks, woodpeckers and birds at bird feeders are good examples. Also, especially on spring mornings, usually skittish songbirds perch out in the open and sing for long stretches. The Northern Mocking bird is capable of singing on one branch all day long. Some species, like the Eastern Phoebe and Belted Kingfisher, will settle on a specific branch out in the open. Although they’ll fly off to catch prey, they’ll come back to this same branch fairly often.

There are two good ways to locate a bird through binoculars. Here’s method No. 1, which I’m going to call “The Statue”:

First of all, freeze your body, stay still, and keep your eyes on the bird as best you can. Without moving your head or your eyes, pull the binoculars up to your face. Your eyes should land exactly on the bird. This is not as easy as it sounds, so practice on any small object until you get the hang of it.

Here’s a second technique that’s a bit more cumbersome, but it works for me. I call it “The Bull’s-eye Method” because it’s a lot like target practice. For this method, you don’t start learning with an actual bird. Instead, do this:

A) With your naked eye, pick out an ordinary tree branch that’s not too small and not too far away. This is going to be your Bull’s-eye (i.e. the bird). Try to find it with the binoculars. Sometimes you can’t find it. So here’s what you do next:

B) With your naked eye pick out something so distinctive that there’s no question as to what it is when magnified. It must be stationary, not too small and fairly close to your Bull’s-eye. For example, this can be a jagged dead branch or a patch of colorful dead leaves or even the base of the tree.

We’ll call this focal point “Tinkerbell” because she’s going to guide you to the Bull’s-eye.

C) Note whether your Bull’s-eye is to the right or left of Tinkerbell, and also whether it’s above or below her. Now look through the binoculars and focus on Tinkerbell. Remember where she is in relation to the Bull’s-eye? Slowly move the binoculars in that direction — right or left, up or down — until you see the Bull’s-eye. Voila!

The more you try, the better and faster you’ll get. Once you can easily find the Bull’s-eye, repeat steps A, B, & C until you get good at finding the actual bird.

Male Northern Cardinals stand out because they’re plentiful and bright red year round.

Practice with common birds that are around a lot so you don’t get frustrated when they fly off. Robins and many sparrows spend a lot of time on the ground, which makes it vastly easier to spot them. Male cardinals have the added advantage of brilliant red feathers.

With both of these methods, when you land on the bird, it’s important to remember that your brain will require a short moment to adjust to the aforementioned magnification disparity.

So, these are the quick tips that work for me. For a terrific, more detailed tutorial on how to bird with binoculars from Birdwatcher’s Digest, click here.

4) Proper Posture and Finer Points

For most people, using binoculars and looking up for long periods can strain neck and back muscles you don’t normally use in this way. It’s called “Birder’s Neck.” Varying your body posture  can help with the fatigue.

    The natural tendency is to stand with your elbows fully extended, especially when looking straight up. (Like the photo here.)

    However, I find that if I stand with my elbows tucked when looking straight ahead, (like the child pictured here), my muscles don’t tire as fast.

      Along these lines, remembering to use proper posture is really important. The natural tendency is to hunch your shoulders. Just don’t! Pull your shoulders down and back, away from your head.
      Now align the rest of your body — back straight, ribs lifted, pelvis tucked, abdominal muscles tight. (This has the added benefit of being good exercise for your abdominal muscles, which will support your spine.)
      For some of us, standing this way isn’t natural. When my back starts to hurt, I’m reminded to check my posture.
      If you’re near a fence or another structure the you can rest your elbows on can also help. (Be sure to check that fence for ticks or spiders.)
       Last but not least, keep those lenses clean! Do not be tempted to breathe on your binoculars and wipe them with your shirt. That’s one sure way to ruin them. That said, looking through even slightly smudged or dusty glass matters. Some binoculars come with a cleaning kit and instructions. But if not, here’s how:
      Before putting your binoculars away, use a soft brush to sweep away any grit from the body and lenses. A cheap, medium-size makeup brush does the trick. Next comes a rub with a pre-moistened lens towelette that’s approved for optics or electronics — i.e. one that’s alcohol- and ammonia-free. Or use a Q-tip moistened with lens cleaning solution. Finally, give a rub with a dust-free lens cloth, such as the cloth you’d use for cleaning eyeglasses.
 
This is supposed to be fun!
      My parting advice for learning to use your new binoculars is this:  Refuse to be intimidated, and try not to get frustrated. Binoculars magnify all of Mother Nature’s majesty, be it dead branches, abandoned nests or turtles in a pond. But there is something singular and spectacular about coming eye to eye with a tiny little bird. It really doesn’t take long to get the hang of it, so just keep practicing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
Beverly's Birding BasicsBirdingFeatured

Why good binoculars can change your (birding) life

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

First of three parts: Over three weeks, our posts will focus on the specifics of birding binoculars. Next installment: How to go about buying your first pair, followed by Beverly’s insights on how to use them effectively.

If you’ve never seen a bird through binoculars, you have my envy. Your future holds one of nature’s great wow moments – and one of its greatest ah-ha moments as well.

Remember the first time you saw something under a microscope? Or stars through a telescope? Seeing a bird with binoculars for the first time is just as magical.

Binoculars make even the most muted colors, patterns and textures pop. You can zoom in on facial details and head positions — or what I choose to experience a bird’s personality or even emotions, despite the fact that science doesn’t confirm if birds have them. But the mystery itself gives me goose bumps sometimes.

Binoculars let you see the fabric of a Song Sparrow. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Of course you get some of this with the naked eye, but binoculars intensify the experience. Have you enjoyed Anders’s photos here on Flying Lessons? He’s able to capture these incredible details thanks to the magnification of telephoto lenses – binoculars of a different sort.

And the wisp of red around the Red-bellied Woodpecker’s beak.

Going from the awe of that first glance to a sustained state of bliss takes practice, and a bit of instruction can help.

Why can’t you just pick this thing up and immediately have nature unfold in all its glorious minutia? There’s a disorientation that comes in the instant your eyes go from a wide, faraway view to such a close-up view. It scrambles your brain. The bird has lighted on a branch, but you’re focused on a nearby pine cone. By the time you figure it out, that bird is gone.

A good pair of beginner’s birding binoculars costs between $250 and $300.

You can tune in on the daily chores of birds, such as this Tufted Titmouse scarfing up breakfast.

Are you surprised? Many people are. Before you settle for those dinged-up binoculars your grandpa used in the war or the $50 ones from your kid’s field trip, hear me out.

Birding is not something you do once, like going to a gourmet restaurant for the best meal of your life. For that same $275 dinner, binoculars can serve up an exquisite plateful every single day.

For thousands of people, birding is a sport like golf or swimming. For thousands more, it’s a hobby like photography, playing an instrument or sewing.

This Barred Owl’s whiskers are visible.

You aren’t surprised when an aspiring golfer spends $275 on a first set of clubs. Did you know that a beginner sewing machine costs $275, too? You’d be lucky to find an entry-level violin or decent guitar for $275.

To make matters worse, as skills improve and dedication to the sport / hobby of birding deepens, many seasoned practitioners prioritize their way to buying optics that cost 10 times this much. If you’re merely surprised at the idea of spending $275 on binoculars, you’re likely horrified at $2,750.

Or the fluffed plumage of an Indigo Bunting

I am acquainted with many amateur musicians, cyclists, photographers, gourmet cooks and seamstresses who have gradually upgraded their equipment over the lifespan of a leisure pursuit. And to be fair, the first time I heard a friend spent $3,000 on a bicycle, $2,000 for a digital sewing machine or $5,000 on a guitar, what do you suppose my reaction was? Disbelief and horror, of course.

In defense of a hobby’s economic investment, you could earn money from it. Let’s say you play tunes for tips, win a contest, sell your custom-made clothing or hire yourself out as a birding tour guide. Your equipment could pay for itself.

Or you could help others by donating such income to charity.

The tiny tongue of a Yellow-throated Warbler in mid-song

But you might just need to accept the fact that if you’re lucky enough to have disposable income, the ability and the time to pursue a leisure activity, it’s rarely going to be free of charge. And relatively speaking, $275 isn’t excessive  and shouldn’t be shocking.

Okay. Now that we’ve established that binoculars are to birding what cameras are to photography, my hope is that you’ll find your way to fairly decent ones and practice using them.

With patience and a bit of luck, God’s most glorious creatures will appear right before your eyes. You’ll never look back.

Next week: How to buy your first binoculars

Even from a distance, you can see the water droplets around an Osprey’s fishing expedition.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterEmail