Birding 101: Using a Field Guide

Using your field guide in the field can be a little tricky at first. Many people advised me to get outdoors with the boys and learn by doing. That just did not work for us. I felt as though I had been given a Spanish dictionary and asked to serve as a translator. I would not be able to do that because I am not proficient in Spanish and would have to concentrate so hard to distinguish between words. It would take me so long to accomplish that and then find the words in the dictionary that the Spanish speaker would be sentences ahead of me.

Identifying birds presents similar obstacles at first. Birds do not often sit still. When they do, it is often in a spot where getting a good look at them is difficult. It helps to know what to look for so you can mentally record what you see quickly. That is why we took some time to learn the bird parts.

Once we became more proficient spotters, there was still the difficulty of remembering what we had seen while trying to match it to the pictures in our field guides. If it took us too long to flip through the guide, we would forget much of what we saw before we could identify the bird. If the bird had flown off, there was no getting a second look. We had to learn to work fast.

So we took some time to familiarize ourselves with our field guides. Just like a person would study Spanish before a trip to Spain, we took some time to learn indoors before entering the great outdoors. Just as a person preparing for a trip abroad does not have to master the language before traveling, neither do I think that everything within the field guide must be memorized. However, by learning some key phrases and becoming familiar with the layout of his dictionary, the traveler prepares himself for effective communication. Similarly, learning the layout of the field guide prepares the birder for a more encouraging day in the field, particularly if one is working with a young birder who can quickly become discouraged if he can never identify anything.

I did not want the indoor learning activities to be laborious though. I did not want the boys to associate birding with "school" and feel as though it was something that had to be mastered. So I tried to make the learning as fun as possible by creating a series of games that made us proficient field guide users. These games also reinforced identifying birds by the color, shape, size, and markings and assisted their memorization of more common birds.

Below are the games we played.

I Spy
Similar to a regular game of I Spy, pick one bird from your field guide and state, "I spy with my little eye, a bird that is _________ (fill in the blank with the bird's most prominent color)". Have your children locate one bird of that color in a field guide and ask a clarifying question about the bird. The participants may not ask if the bird in question is such-and-such bird, but must ask a question about the bird's characteristics. For example, they may not ask, "Is it an American Goldfinch?" but could ask "Does the bird have black wings?" If the answer is "yes" that player may ask another clarifying question. After three positive responses, he may then ask, "Is it an American Goldfinch?" If at anytime, the answer is "no", play passes to the next participant. This continues until the bird has been identified. Players switch turns asking the first question and may take turns as the "spy" too.

What Bird?
Print individual pictures of five to ten different birds. I found my pictures on wikipedia and printed thumbnails of each. Cut out the individual pictures and tape them to walls throughout your house (or to trees, benches, handrails, etc. if you would like to take the games outdoors). Walk together and help your children find the pictures, discuss the birds' attributes, and look them up in a field guide. If you have a collection of Audubon plush toy birds, you can place these around the house or yard instead of printed pictures.

Silhouettes
Print pictures of a variety of birds and color over each bird with a black Sharpie. Cut the bird out along the edge of its shape and tape to a craft stick (laminate first if desired). Have your children sit on a bed and you sit on the floor at the foot of the bed. Put on a silhouette puppet show by raising one silhouette at a time. Have your children identify the type of bird pictured (woodpecker, duck, owl, song bird, etc.) and find the section of the field guide where those birds are listed.

Field Guide Drill
After you spend some time familiarizing your children with how your field guide is organized, hold a field guide drill. This game is similar to a Bible drill. You call out a bird and they find it in their field guide. You can also do this visually by holding up pictures of birds or silhouettes instead of calling out bird names. Try calling out bird groups, like ducks or woodpeckers, and have your children locate those sections of the field guide. Time them and record their progress.

I hope these tips set you on the path to birding success. Return soon for Birding 101: Learning to Use Binoculars.

Until then, happy birding!

Dawn