David Allen Sibley - Sibleys Birding Basics

Many thanks to all the people over the years whose inquisitive minds and dedication to the art and science of bird identification have helped me to learn the basics of birding. Especially the late Harold Axtell; Tony Bledsoe; Jon Dunn; Pete Dunne; Keith Hansen; Steve Howell; Kenn Kaufman; Bob Maurer; Noble Proctor; Peter Pyle; Will Russell; my father, Fred Sibley; and my brother, Steven Sibley; Rich Stallcup; Clay and Pat Sutton; and many, many others.

Special thanks to Chris Elphick, Steve Howell, Will Russell, and Joan Walsh for reading all or part of the manuscript and helping to correct and clarify many details. Any errors or misjudgments that remain are mine alone. Extra special thanks to my wife, Joan, for helping in so many ways, and to Evan and Joel for keeping my work from becoming my life.

One of the biggest differences between the expert birder and the novice is that the expert has spent years training to see details. The beginner must literally learn how to see them.

The challenge of seeing and interpreting details in birds is complex, and all of the issues are intertwined. A patient and deliberate approach and an absence of distractions are prerequisites. Active study asking questions while observing, is important. Anything that promotes detailed studysuch as sketching or taking notesis also very helpful.

It is easy for a beginner to be overwhelmed by details and by the challenge and excitement of just seeing a bird. Not having a clear idea of what to focus on can result in an observation that yields no useful information. Experience will cure this, but as a general rule it is best to focus on the bird's bill and face. The shape of the bill will help you to place the bird in a broad group of related species, while the bill and the face together are a distinctively marked part of almost every bird.

You must not only practice seeing details but also practice seeing details at a distance. The field marks birders use at a distance are different from the marks used at very close range. Be conscious of this and study the birds to see how distance changes perception.

Watching a bird after you have identified it can be a very useful exercise. Watch it fly, watch it move around, watch it forage. Watch a bird as it flies away, but challenge yourself to identify it again based on what you can see at a distance. It's very important to know what you cannot see on a distant bird. You'll often hear experienced birders say something like, I didn't see the white patch but I don't think it would have been visible at that distance, or I didn't see the white patch, and it really should have been visible. This expertise can only be acquired by experience and by consciously testing the limits of perception.

A large part of identifying birds is knowing what to expect. Having an idea of what you should see and simply looking for confirmation is far simpler and more productive than looking at a bird with no preconceptions. Every aspect of the birds' lives and appearance follows a pattern, and expectations of what species should be present and what they should look like are the precursors to quick and accurate identifications.

Birds are found at predictable times and places, and this information can be a very powerful clue. For example: A mead-owlark seen in California can be safely identified as a Western Meadowlark based on the fact that the Eastern Meadowlark simply doesn't occur there. You do not need to study plumage details or hear call notes to feel confident in its identification as a Western Meadowlark. On a more subtle level, if the Red-tailed Hawk is the most common large hawk in your area, you can start with the assumption that any large hawks seen are Red-taileds. Then, looking specifically for a reddish tail, white speckling on the scapulars, the correct overall size or proportions, or dozens of other characteristics might be enough for you to conclude within a fraction of a second that you are looking at a Red-tailed Hawk. There is no need to consider other possibilities unless something doesn't match up.

Seeing and remembering all the details of variation in birds' appearance, habits, and distribution is much easier when one understands the underlying patterns. By paying attention to patterns, one develops a sense of the expected range of variation and can then quickly recognize and study any bird that doesn't match the expectations.

One of the most basic patterns that the bird-watcher needs to understand is the groupings of related species. Everyone knows that ducks are ducks and hawks are hawks. The birder knows that, among ducks, the diving ducks and puddle ducks are different; and that among the diving ducks, the eiders, scoters, scaup, mergansers, and others are all different. Even within the mergansers the Common and Red-breasted Mergansers are similar, while the Hooded Merganser is distinctive. Learning the characteristics that group related species together helps an observer to distinguish a duck from a loon, an eider from a teal, or a Red-breasted Merganser from a Hooded Merganser.