birdsoup

Novice and beginning birders are eager to see and identify new birds.  But, let’s face it, identifying a small brown bird dashing into dense underbrush is not easy.  The best way to learn birds is to start with the common birds in your backyard, cardinals, chickadees, robins.  Beginners quickly learn to ID these common visitors to the backyard.  That’s a good start.   Jumping from knowing your backyard birds into identifying spring warblers is a great leap.

I suggest that ducks make a good family of birds for beginners to master.  There are many reasons;

• Ducks are big, so they are easy to see.  Sparrows, on the other hand, are all small brown birds with coloration that consists of different patches of brown.  
• Since ducks are large their field marks are large as well and easy to see.  Male ducks, in particular, have very distinctive field marks that are easy to see.
• Unlike small woodland birds, duck are easy to see.  There are no branches, leaves, trees, or shrubs to obscure your view.  They just sit on the water with nothing to interfere with your view.
• Again unlike small woodland birds, ducks tend to remain fairly stationary.  They are not in continuous motion darting here and there chasing insects.   They float motionless on the water surface, sometimes even sleeping.  Sometimes they do “tip up” stretching for food under the surface or maybe they dive for food.  But even this behavior helps identify them by type of duck.
• You don’t have to walk miles to find them or bushwack through woods and fields filled with vines and ticks.  Waterside locations for ducks are usually very easy to access and provide a pleasant environment.  
• And one of my favorite advantages of watching ducks:  You don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to find them.  They are available for viewing all day.  You can sleep late.