Thinking of taking up bird watching "twitching"

[Gecko75]

as the topic says, I am thinking of taking up bird watching "twitching" as I get rather bored in the winter months when I can't go herping,

so here are the questions,

I have no idea at all on what to take do or how to do it, could someone please start me off with some good info? eg time of day, best habitat etc, I see birds all the time out herping but they all look so similar, they are a lot of trouble to identify (I guess people think the same of reptiles)

Also what is a good book that will really help me in identifying birds? I have the simpson and day bird book at the moment, just curious if there is an updated version.

I think I might find out if there is a local bird watching group aswell, I know I will be the only kid there and everyone else will be old, but hey, I don't mind.

 

[pyrodarknessanny]

you'll need your self a birdie book, and some binocoliars.
id recomend simpson & day field guide to the birds of australia.
one of the most comprehencive guides ive come across, i even has a check list in the back of all the birds.

 

[Gecko75]

ok I got that book, I am not gonna use binoculars, as I am going to photograph all the birds I find so the binoculars wont be no use if the bird is a long way away cause my camera might not be able to see them, it does have a rather large zoom though so it should work. I will start reading through my bird book, I should pick up some stuff pretty quick.

 

[jordo]

You need Simpson and Day, some Binos and a helmet and some knee pads for when you fall in holes while looking at the sky
The best way to learn is to go out with other birdos, a lot of the time you wont even see the bird just hear it so a fellow birdo is essential for teaching you calls.

 

[Gecko75]

ok birdos shouldn't be to hard to find, I have a lack of herpers or froggers here so I have to figure things out for myself, but I know bird watching is more popular. thanks Jordo, by the way, have you got any threads to post from herping? it seems you havnt posted one in a while. also I dont think the helmet and knee pads will be needed, I already trip over stuff enough when I am looking where I am going, I cant see that increasing when I pay no attention to the ground lol

Ryan

 

[jordo]

I do have a bit of a build up of trips I haven't posted at the moment, too busy for now to do any though.

 

[pyrodarknessanny]

kool. well good luck to you, and post lost of pics too!,
i find its fun to make a list of all the birds you can see from around place that you go alot, and around your home.

some ive seen around my home are
pacific black duck
australian wood duck
little egret
australian white ibis
straw necked ibis
masked lapwig
pacific baza (personal fave)
black shouldered kite
white bellied sea eagle
spotted turtle dove
crested pigeon
little corella
sulphur crestred cockatoo
galah
rainbow lorikeet
scaly brest lorikeet
king parrot (male)
estern rosella
channel-billed cuckoo
tawny frog mouth
laughing kookaburra
blue faced honey eater
noisy miner
indian miner
green figbird
pied butcher bird
magpie
double bared finch

thous are all the ones ive seen from my house , some like the eagles iveo nly seen once and they were soo high up you could barly see them. others like the finchs live in the street so i see them very often.
what birds have you seen so far?

 

[byron_moses]

i have a pair of pheasants living out the back of my place

 

[Gecko75]

nice list, I think I will be able to double that in our backyard though we have 3 acres, and the one thing we do not lack in is birds as dad planted so many banksias and grevilias, plus we have a bird feeder and stuff. Even got a few bowers in the garden from satin bowerbirds, usually see a few females every morning. I will post a thread once I have photographed at least 10 species. think I might go out side and start now.

in the garden I have seen all the common usual stuff, plus we get in a lot of parrots and pigeons, qualls, bower birds, phesant coucals, cuckos, red tailed black cockatoos, hawks, eagles, 5 species of owls, finches, wagtails etc. my favourite bird find for me has been a regent bowerbird I saw a few km from my house in a patch of rainforest.

 

[Kyro]

I know nothing about bird watching but thought i'd mention that I recently seen a pair of binoculars with a built in camera, google them & you should be able to find them.

 

[Gecko75]

ok I pressume the middle of the day is a bad time to look for birds, there is nothing out there moving except noisy minors, about 25 of them they are very annoying cause they love chasing all the cool stuff away. also saw a few red necked wallabies which are always in the padock, we have about 5 of them around and mum feeds them in the morning when they come up to the back of our house. 1 joey, 2 females and 2 males, there was another joey but I think its dead, most of the ones we have around usually get killed by cars and the joeys get killed by dogs aswell as cars.

 

[pyrodarknessanny]

thats soo cool!
early morning and in afternoon are the best times to see birdies.
mid day is too hot to be moving around.

 

[Gecko75]

might add, the owl species we get are, tawny frog mouths, barn owls, southern boobook owls, once we saw a powerful owl on the clothesline and also masked owls (I think, they look similar to barn owls to me)

I will wait to the arvo, might top up the bird feeders, hopefully a few things come in, I would love to photograph a phesant coucel but they are so shy, we see them everynow and then near thick grass or on fence posts, occasionally crossing the roads aswell but they never hang around for long.

I am just trying to expand my wildlife interests, I used to be really into mammals and reptiles, then mostly just reptiles as mammals were to hard, then I started with frogs aswell a year ago, then adding birds to that now. I was also at one stage into scorpians, but I gave that up since there was only 2 species of scorps to be found in the area, gets a bit boring seeing the same 2 things over and over. I would love to do mammals, but unfortunately, most you dont see for long and if you do they are always moving. mammals will have to wait till I go to UNI in a few years, much easier if your using elite traps and stuff to catch them.

 

[Sock Puppet]

Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds. Not exactly a field guide, as it's a massive tome of a thing, but it's a fantastic & comprehensive book with excellent photographs.

Make sure you take a mobile phone that can log onto Twitter. Then you can tweet as you twitch eg "Gecko75 just spotted a pigeon"

 

[cracksinthepitch]

Simpson & day and Michael Morcombe(feild guide to Australian birds) are good sketched feild guides ,however i like the photographic feild guides such as Australian birds by Donald and Molly Trounson and Birds of Australia by Jim Flegg( which is my favourite). Sometimes i find the interpretive sketches not up to scratch .
If you contact the bird observors club of Australia on 03 98775342 they will be able to direct you to the nearest subgroup for your area. There will be a wealth of experience there for you to learn from... Happy Birding.....Go the Raptors,lol

 

[cracksinthepitch]

or check this out Bird Observation & Conservation Australia

 

[Gecko75]

thanks, will give that number a call soon, will be great to get out, yes I prefer photograped pictures as they are exact, and also, I don't mind raptors either, especially big wedge tails!

 

[imalizard]

Trevor’s Birding

Thats my old teachers blog about birding...its a good read.

 

[Gecko75]

thanks Dan, that is a great blog, and he has queit a list for his backyard, I tried in the afternoon in the garden, but only found 5 common species before it started to pour with rain, apart from birds I saw 7 red necked wallabies in the padock, one of which a small joey. incase someone wants to know what types of birds I saw they were the following:

australian wood duck Chenonetta jubata
Australian magpie Cracticus tibicen
crested pigeon Ocyphaps lophotes
Noisy myna Manorina melanocephala
Laughing kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae

 

[Gecko75]

ok another question,

Do all you bird photographers use tripods to shoot? I am finding, with the zoom it blurs when I take the picture as I can never stay still enough, also is there a mode I should be shooting with? at the moment I am just using auto with the zoom and no flash which makes it hard (I always use flash to achieve better quality)

list so far for my land still consists of common stuff, just my luck, the day I get the camera out, we do not see any of the honey eaters, bower birds, quails etc.

Australian magpie Cracticus tibicen
Australian wood duck Chenonetta jubata
Bar-shouldered dove Geopelia humeralis
Crested pigeon Ocyphaps lophotes
Galah Cacatua roseicapilla
Noisy myna Manorina melanocephala
Laughing kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae
Rainbow lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus
Scaly-breasted lorikeet Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus