Tips to Make the Most of Your Birding Trip 

by David Moll 

I’ve led field trips for the Verde Valley Birding & Nature Festival since 2009. The following is a list of tips to consider if you sign-up for one of my trips, perhaps they are more widely useful. 

The agenda for the trip is to see and hear as many birds as practically possible, and thereby learn as much about birds as we can. Many other things may happen, but there is no other agenda. 

Your fellow participants have dedicated their time, money, and attention—their very being —to engage with the above agenda, please respect their interests. 

Birding trips are for learning about birds, not for learning how to lead birding trips, that's a very different endeavor and a subversion of the above agenda. 

Your fellow participants have a variety of backgrounds, capacities, and sometimes objectives.  Novice or advanced birder, lister or photographer, young or old, your understanding of, and patience with this variety will make for an enjoyable trip for all. Not everything your trip leader says is necessarily meant for you, the leader needs to address the full spectrum of participants' interests and abilities. 

Some participants expect to have birds identified for them right away, others prefer more of a discovery process experience. Again, please be patient as the trip leader balances these two modalities. (I’ve even momentarily split up a group to accommodate each faction.) In any case, it’s recommended to make as thorough an observation as possible—photons and sound waves—no matter when or how the identification arrives. Consider your birding trip to be like a workshop in which you get to exercise and expand your abilities. 

Some participants are more intense about their birding, others are more relaxed. Your trip leader appreciates and accommodates the full spectrum of approaches to birding in this regard. In any case, know that birding can be a matter of millimeters and milliseconds. At least know that the moment you exit the trip vehicle may be the only moment to observe a bird species for the entire festival. 

Couples aside, festival groups consist mostly of strangers, but we are bound together by something precious and all-too-rare: our love for vanishing nature. Please recognize this in your fellow travelers and appreciate and help each other. 

To make the most of your experience, prepare for field trips by studying what birds you may encounter. eBird, field guides, and your festival organizer would be good resources. 

Please check the weather days ahead of your trip(s)—especially if you'll be traveling from out of town—and shortly before your trip(s), and pack/dress accordingly. You'd be surprised how often there are failures to dress appropriately. 

Stealth and the ability to maintain attention are the primary attributes for observing birds. Please try to practice these assiduously.

If you've identified a bird, especially a species not already encountered, quietly inform the group. (Keep in mind that the trip leader may be juggling something like five birds, triaging what to focus on next.) 

It’s very difficult but please try to not point at birds, in some situations that can upset and flush them. Instead, describe quietly the location of a bird. You can also point with your gaze, including through your binocular. 

Please note that the trip leader should be the least stealthy as that person has the most so say, addresses the whole group and moves about the group quietly engaging with each participant. 

I prioritize bird species. A priority bird species is one that may be seen only once during a trip—or during a festival. 

If I appear to be ignoring birds, it’s probably because: a) we’ve already seen, heard, and talked about that species (but feel welcome to ask about what you’re hearing, there’s nothing wrong with repetition); b) we’ll likely have more opportunities to observe the bird species you’re wondering about and there are higher priority species about; and c) the bird you’re wondering about is too distant and/or concealed and is very unlikely to be seen (nonetheless I will frequently identify a vocalizing [or sonating] bird just to reinforce what we’ve already experienced or prepare for a possible encounter with the species), pointing it out to trip participants would just be a distraction. 

If there are no birds, that is not your cue to drop your stealth and vigilance, quite the opposite. 

Please stay together as a group, that makes it easier to quietly communicate, you won't be telling the group about a bird that everyone else has already seen, heard, and talked about, and everyone else won't have to wait for you at a fork in the trail. 

Photography is still welcome on trips not designated as photography trips, but don't advance toward a bird that everyone else is observing, and don't lag behind for the reasons mentioned above. 

It's not a given that every participant—including the trip leader—will see every bird species, let alone every bird, encountered by the group as a whole. 

Things change every day, especially during migration. Enthusiastically embrace what nature offers on any particular day. It may not be what you expect or even want, but it is a singular opportunity to learn. Go with the flow! 

The top birders in the world learn something new every time they're in the field. If you're too cool for school, you'll miss out. 

In birding, identifying birds by the sounds they make is extremely important. While peoples’ ability in this regard will vary widely, don't sell yourself short in this respect. Make an effort to listen to, analyze, and remember bird sounds. 

When in the field, the only trip that matters is the one you're on at the moment; please don't yack on about your trip to blah, blah, blah—or anything else for that matter. Remember, stealth and attention to your surroundings make for a productive trip.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember that it can take more than a decade to gain an encompassing grasp of what is transpiring in nature: just keep going. 

Please don't try to impress or act out in any way for the approval or attention of the trip leader, it's distracting and everyone else is embarrassed for you. Likewise, when strung out along a trail, don’t hog the leader, mix it up when opportunities arise. 

People are most satisfied when they are totally immersed in what they're doing. A birding trip is a golden opportunity to leave everything else behind and totally immerse yourself in nature. I haven’t employed spotting scopes very much, but there is at least one guideline to follow in addition to the above. The premise is that there are far fewer scopes than people. 

In the first time around, take a quick look so that others may have a chance to observe the bird through the scope. In subsequent cycles, you can take somewhat longer and longer looks. (It goes without saying that communicable diseases should not be transmitted by the sharing of spotting scopes.) 

More of a recommendation than a guideline, if you can hold them steady, I recommend (at least) 10× power binoculars. Beyond the aesthetics of viewing birds under such magnification, viewing fine details of difficult to identify species, and doing all that from a respectable distance, it’s nice to know that a group of birders is having approximately the same viewing experience. 

Underlying all this are safety and fun. One never wants an injury, but it would be doubly injurious to miss precious birding time that you’ve been looking forward to. Watch your step! Fun is self evident.