Stunning! Roseate spoonbill alights in the Florida wetland.
Photo courtesy Floridastock/Shutterstock.

America loves its birds. We spend a fortune on them—$4 billion a year just to feed wild ones and another $1 billion annually on feeders, birdbaths, and birdhouses. All told, 46.7 million Americans consider themselves birders, according to the most recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey. As astoundingly large as this number is, the activity continues to surge, growing faster than mountain biking or skiing. Bird watchers, ahem, birders (the preferred modern term) have their pick of well over 200 festivals devoted to birds each year.

[Want to test your bird knowledge? See how many bird calls you recognize in this audio quiz.]

What exactly is it about our winged friends that makes them so appealing? Well, they’re pretty, for one. “Everybody loves birds,” ornithologist John Fitzpatrick tells me. He’s director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, popularly known as the Bird Lab, which is ground zero for most things avian in North America. “You don’t need to know a thing about them to enjoy them. They enjoyed birds in the days of the ancient Egyptians and in caveman days.”

Fitzpatrick goes deeper than your average backyard enthusiast. He’s helped discover seven species of birds in South America and is a central player in the ongoing controversy over whether the ivory-billed woodpecker, long believed extinct, has been rediscovered in Arkansas. But he gets the purely visceral appeal of birding: “Birds are colorful. They sing and fly and migrate so they join us in different parts of the world. They move enough annually so they mean seasonally different things for us.”

Another part of birding’s pull is social. “People want to share what they’ve seen with other people,” Fitzpatrick says. “That makes it a communal action. At Cornell now, we’re getting dozens of freshmen every year coming here because of the Bird Lab. Many of these are teenagers who are just superb birders.”

Take Luke Seitz, for example, a 19-year-old Cornell freshman who was an accomplished bird photographer and painter (lukeseitzart.com) before he went to college. When he was 16, Seitz graduated early from high school and landed a job on a whale-watching boat. He socked away money all summer to finance the first of several trips to photograph birds—in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. He then volunteered as a guide at eco-lodges that cater to birders. Sometimes, he would offer one of his paintings in exchange for a few nights lodging. “Birding makes me feel like I have a connection to nature,” he says.

Just as important to birding’s appeal is the sheer joy of being out in the wild with a purpose—namely to track, record, and study wildlife. “Experiences are becoming more valuable than things,” says Courtney Buechert, a birder who has led the Christmas Bird Count in southern Marin County, California, since the 1970s. (His day job is CEO of Eleven Inc., one of the top ad agencies in San Francisco.) “People realized you can buy stuff, but other people can buy stuff too. Experiences are something that are uniquely yours.”

It doesn’t hurt that birding is a lot easier to get into than many other pursuits—you don’t need to be in great physical shape, invest in a lot of equipment, travel far, or wait for the right kind of weather. “I can do this anytime, anywhere I am,” says Buechert. “I was once sitting in a conference room having a meeting with a client and a red-tailed hawk came and landed on the railing. You’re talking about a bird that is a foot high with a can opener attached to the front of its face.”

Birding, like the environmental movement, is largely a product of the 20th century and has run parallel to the country’s rapid urbanization. In 1900, less than 40 percent of Americans lived in an urban setting, and birding—often done with a shotgun rather than binoculars—was still largely the domain of naturalists, artists, and egg collectors. More than a century later, nearly 80 percent of Americans are urban dwellers, and birding provides us a perch in the world of plants and animals.

Northern hawk owl: Day hunter can spot prey half a mile away.
Photo courtesy Luke Seitz/lukeseitzart.com.

To better understand the possibilities of urban birding, I drop in on Dominik Mosur, a 35-year-old Polish emigré who works as an animal care attendant at San Francisco’s Randall Museum and as a volunteer for the Golden Gate Audubon Society. In 2011, Mosur set a single-year record (what birders call a “big year”) by spotting 273 species in the county of San Francisco, everything from an American avocet to a common yellowthroat. He invites me to join a monthly bird walk that starts at the museum and meanders through the surrounding parkland.

We meet at the entrance at 8 a.m., a dozen early-risers led by Mosur and his Audubon colleague Brian Fitch. It is a crystal-clear autumn morning, but it also happens to be one in which Bay Area birds would share the sky with space shuttle Endeavour. (It is scheduled to fly, piggyback on a 747, over the Golden Gate Bridge and around the city on its final journey before heading to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.)

We spend the first 15 minutes sweeping the nearby trees and telephone lines, spotting an American goldfinch, a pair of pine siskins, and a young red-shouldered hawk, among others. But the action doesn’t really take wing until we arrive at a large patch of poison oak that occupies a spot near the top of Corona Hill. A Lincoln’s sparrow perches on a branch, and then someone spots a savannah sparrow. Mosur, excited, stage whispers, “It’s picking up.” A warbling vireo lands in a bush near a golden-crowned sparrow. “That’s a pretty good sparrow flock right there, even if it’s only three birds,” Mosur says, noting that each of the sparrows is the first of fall for Corona Hill. “Good variety!”

At that point, more and more people armed with binoculars and long-lens cameras start trudging up the hill. These late arrivals are what birders might call accidentals or strays. They are here to see the Endeavour.

The birders, unflappable, stay focused on their LBJs—little brown jobs. While most of the day’s visitors to Corona Hill will view but one flying object, our little group of birders tally 46 avian species and the Endeavour.

The walk unequivocally demonstrates one other facet of birding, which I call connoisseurship—not in the sense of ever-more rarefied taste, but in the sense of a densely layered appreciation for nuance and subtlety. Wine enthusiasts like to ponder the importance of terroir and to argue over whether the 2005 Bordeaux will be the match of the 1982s. Long-time baseball fans can expound on the details of the infield fly rule and debate which left-handed pitcher has the best move to first base. Avid birders, as I had seen, have the expertise and enthusiasm to differentiate between the Lincoln’s sparrow and the savannah sparrow and to get excited about it. They can deftly juggle the differences between the immature and adult plumage of hundreds of species or passionately discourse on the benefits of roof prism binoculars over Porro prism pairs; they can look at a bay full of rafting ducks, as Buechert did when 12 years old, and notice the one tufted duck among the thousands of locals, even though they have never seen one outside of a book before. Connoisseurship, I think, is a field mark of passion.

Bird Nerds Unite! The Saturday Evening Post

But it was another 26-year-old, Roger Tory Peterson, who produced the book that would change birding and, some say, kick-start the environmental movement. In 1934, Peterson’s A Field Guide to the Birds proved the perfect tool for both novice birders and their experienced brethren; it was inexpensive ($2.75), portable (just 7.5-by-5 inches), and useful, introducing what came to be known as the Peterson Identification System, which deploys arrows to point out the distinguishing field marks discussed in the text. Peterson’s book (now $26) is a must for any birder, and here are a few more:

The Sibley Guide to Birds
544 pages, $39.95

Pros: Sibley is extremely thorough and reliable, featuring illustrations of birds in flight as well as standing, perched, or afloat; 6,600 illustrations in all.

Cons: At roughly 6-by-10 inches, it’s not very portable—though it also comes in two smaller regional (east/west) versions.

Kaufman Field Guide to Birds Of North America
392 pages, $18.95

Pros: Digitally enhanced photography (though some birders don’t like this aspect) is helpful for beginners.

Cons: Some readers complain about blurry or pale images.

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America,
Sixth Edition
576 pages, $27.95

Pros: It’s comprehensive and up-to-date, featuring all 990 species found in North America. It also has terrific maps, with major fall and spring migration routes.

Cons: Too large and heavy for practical field use; like Sibley, it comes in smaller eastern and western editions.

Bird Nerd Library Essentials The Saturday Evening Post

Forget the long lines and parking wars at the mall … instead, cultivate your own handmade presents for the gardener in your life. You’ll not only save a bushel, but these gifts from the heart show that you really care. Here are four ideas to get your creativity “growing”!

1. Stepping stone kit.
Gather — in a bucket embellished with a festive ribbon — a premade mold, small bag of cement mix, and decorative elements like seashells, river rock, and colorful marbles or tile.

2. Pampering package.
Pick up a pair of quality gardening gloves, a bottle of luxurious lotion with an SPF of 30 or more, lip balm, and insect repellent made with natural botanicals. Then, neatly place the items into a wide-brimmed hat filled with raffia.

3. Beauty on the inside.
Nothing perks up the winter-weary soul like a blooming plant. Bringing bulbs indoors is an easy way to welcome spring early. In a decorative container, collect spring-blooming bulbs (paperwhites or daffodils are good choices) and a small bag of sterile potting mix. Attach a note with planting directions (e.g., bulbs must be refrigerated for 12 to 20 weeks before planting).

4. Holiday herb garden.
Repurpose pretty aluminum food cans —  check out imported goods like coffee or tomato sauce — into trendy containers for kitchen herbs. Make sure the container is large enough and add a couple of drainage holes into the bottom of the can to allow proper drainage. Plant them with pot-friendly herbs, such as sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, and chives.

Embellish cans with ribbon and attach a recipe that features that particular herb.

And a Cardinal in a Fir Tree

If you enjoy a real Christmas tree this year, don’t just cut it up or pitch it out after holidays — share it with your feathered friends! Winter can be a challenging time as backyard birds struggle to find food and shelter. Your old cut spruce or fir tree can offer both.

After you’ve removed all the holiday decorations, set the tree outside — right side up or on its side. It makes no difference to the birds. Place near a window so you and your family can enjoy the flurry of activity that’s about to ensue. Decorate your tree with dried sunflower heads, Indian corn, holly branches, wheat, and millet. Pinecones slathered with peanut butter and rolled in birdseed make pretty “ornaments,” while strings of dried cranberries, unsalted popcorn, or peanuts in the shell serve well as a garland the birds will go gaga over. Once spring arrives, run whatever is left of your tree through a wood chipper. Add the chips to the compost pile or use as mulch in the garden.

Safe Travels

When winter blows in, so do treacherous driving conditions — black ice, snow, low-visibility, and unexpected wind gusts. Ensure your odds of getting out of a jam safely by taking a few minutes to assemble a roadside emergency kit. AAA suggests you pack the following:

• Blankets
• Gloves
• Boots
• Hat
• Granola bars or MREs (Meals-Ready-to-Eat)
• Water
• Essential medications
• Ice scraper and brush
• Flashlight
• Shovel
• Jumper cables
• Flares or reflective triangle
• Traction material
• First-aid kit
• Knife
• Screwdrivers (flathead and Phillips)
• Duct tape
• List of emergency contacts, medical conditions, and allergies

Notes from the Field: Gifts for the Gardener and more… The Saturday Evening Post

The best choices are native species of trees and bushes. Native plants lure more native insects than do nonnative species, which in turn attracts more birds to feed on the insects. Birds plan their nesting at times when insect populations are most abundant, and having babies in nests ensures those colorful visitors with the melodious voices will be around longer for you to enjoy.

Birds, like humans, are attracted to bright colors, and red is one of their favorites. Many plants and trees have developed red fruits for that reason. The birds get a meal, and the plants get their seeds distributed for free. But certain color combinations are even more irresistible to avian diners, such as red and dark colors as when unripe fruit starts out red and then turns black when ripe. Examples include black cherry, poke weed, and wild raspberry. Other of nature’s color schemes also attract birds, such as the gray dogwood with its white fruit and bright red stems, irresistible to fruit loving birds such as cedar waxwings and Baltimore orioles.

The following is a partial list of shrubs and trees that can put your yard on the best-places-to-stop list for birds, both resident and migrating.

Deciduous Trees

• American mountain ash
• box elder
• hackberry
• crabapple
• hawthorn
• persimmon
• shagbark hickory

Deciduous Shrubs

• common blackberry
• gray dogwood
• red raspberry
• dwarf serviceberry
• American cranberrybush viburnum
• spicebush
• winterberry

For more information about attracting desirable birds to your yard see, Landscaping That’s for the Birds by Rachael Liska in the May/June Country Gentleman section of The Saturday Evening Post.

Attract Songbirds to your Garden The Saturday Evening Post