If you enjoy watching birds, you might want to know how to identify them, too. It is exciting when you are able to correctly identify a bird while out bird watching. This isn't as easily done as said, however - it can be very difficult at times. A good field guide can be your friend in this regard. However, you'll also need to glean some knowledge on your own before you can even use the field guide properly. So, if you are a beginner at bird watching, the following are a few tips that can help you more accurately identify birds.

What's the Bird's Size?

Take a look at the size of a bird if you don't know how to identify it. Is it the size of a robin? A chicken? Perhaps an ostrich? Size is important here, as is the ability to evaluate the body type of the bird you are watching. Is the bird plump, skinny, short, or very long? The entire body should be taken into consideration, including the size of the beak, the size of the tail, and the size and shape of the wings as well.

What Color or Pattern Is the Bird?

What colors does the bird exhibit? Look at the colors and try to match them with the size and shape. As you become more experienced, you'll learn what colors certain types of birds usually are, which will help you identify them; sometimes you'll even be able to do this by color alone! However, colors, too, can be tricky. The lighting may affect the color that the bird appears. Take the lighting into account and make a mental note of what parts of the bird are what colors. Are the legs a certain color, the wings a specific color, or does it have any specific markings anywhere on the body? With a good pair of birding binoculars the features of these feathered creatures can be viewed more closely.

What's Your Location?

You can also identify birds by location in many cases. Take a look around and figure out where you are. Are you out on the water, deep inside a large forest, or are you perhaps doing some backyard birding? There are certain birds that live in specific habitats. If the bird's in the water, wading or swimming, can it actually climb a tree, too? Does it fly, and if so, where and how? How does it move its tail? All of these things will help you when you want to identify the birds you watch.

Use Your Ears

Beginners at bird watching need to know to listen to birds too. Every bird species has a unique song; if you listen, you may be able to identify the bird you're watching just by what you can hear. If you listen closely, you might even see some birds that you would never have seen otherwise. It's not always helpful to listen when you identify a bird, but it's another piece of information that can definitely help you.

So, next time you go out bird watching, keep all of these tips in mind. They'll help you identify the birds you see and have a more fun and rewarding experience out in the wild.

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