Birdwatching Vacation: Learn To Recognize The Birds

Do you enjoy watching birds that lurk around and peck in the grass in your backyard? Then you are going to enjoy traveling the world where you can see over ten thousand species of birds. If a birdwatching vacation is on your mind and you have never been on one before, then you are in need of some tips.

First of all, for the area you plan on visiting, you are going to need a field guide. What is a field guide? This is a book that is full of pictures of different birds. You are also going to find tips that will help you identify the ones you see. For those living in the United States, the Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds or Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds would be a great choice.

Once you are familiar with the birds that are in your area, you should look into the National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of N. A. Third edition. For those young bird watchers, Peterson offers a guide just for you. In it, you will find descriptions of one hundred and eighty eight bird. The new Stokes Field Guides would also be something to look into.

Of course, during your birdwatching vacation, you will need to take some binoculars with you. This is so that you can see the birds.

The best birdwatchers out there have the best binoculars. Even though they are able to tell the species of a bird from one hundred yards away simply by looking at their silhouette, they still like to see them up close. There is a big different between those fifty dollar binoculars and the nine hundred dollar ones.

For the area you are traveling to, you need to know what to expect. The big woodpecker you saw in the woods was not an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, it was a Pileated Woodpecker. By looking at a checklist of the birds in the area, you will learn this. Many of the National and State parks will give you checklists of the birds that have been spotted in the park.

In order to see them, you need to find them. In order to find them, you will need to learn about the habitat of each species of bird you like. Do you want to spend more time on a lake, at the top of a tree or on the ground? You should also learn the voice of the birds in your yard and then later, learn the voice of the birds in other areas. In order to find a bird, often times, you are going to hear it first.

A birdwatching vacation can be a fun way to spend some time, but you will have a lot more fun if you do your homework ahead of time.