How to Make Bird Watching Productive

Bird watching is a favorite pastime of many people. If you are obsessed with birdwatching, there is a way you could convert your pastime to an informative and productive database. Follow these steps to learn how.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Good camera (SLR with a zoom lens)
• Sunlight
• Internet access
• Computer
• Web-based photo album such as flickr.com
• Patience
• Passion

1. 
    

   Select a bright and sunny day for bird watching.

2. 
    
   Male Red Winged Black Bird

   Carry your camera with its tripod stand all the time.

3. 
    
   Common Grackle

   Shoot multiple pictures of birds that you watched. You will get the best pictures in good light conditions, so shoot on sunny days.

4. 
    
   Dove

   Visit sanctuaries, because that is where you will find most types of birds.

5. 
    
   American White Pelicans

   Select the best pictures and upload them to your online album that you can share with the public. Flickr.com and Kodak.com are some examples.

6. 
    
   Canada Goose

   Label each picture. It is important to know the name of the bird that you are displaying. To make your collection more scientific and informative, also add generic names of the birds. you may add more description if you want to make it more attractive.

7. 
    
   Female Red winged Blackbird

   Your bird database is ready for the public display. Forward your album to your friends and family. Ask them to keep checking your album frequently, as you will be adding new members periodically.

Tips & Warnings

• Finding the correct names of the bird might be a challenge. The easiest way is to search the visual description of the bird in the image search of Google. For instance, I saw a black bird that had a big red spot on its wings. I typed, "black bird with red spots on wings." I got a gallery of bird pictures and one of them matched the one I had shot. It turned out to be a Red Winged Black Bird.

Resources

• Global Birds by Basharat Shah

[naturenut]

on 7/3/2009 Great article. I love birdwatching.

[GreenGardenChic]

on 5/14/2008 Great article, I love the Red Winged Black Bird photo.

[leannec71]

on 5/13/2008 What a great idea. I love bird watching and taking pictures of them. Thank you for the tips.