A goldfinch.

We are fortunate to live in an area so rich in bird life.

Are you interested in learning more about the birds you see every day?

Learning about our feathered friends need not be overwhelming. There are many resources available to get you started on what could become a lifetime pursuit.

It isn’t necessary to travel great distances to enjoy bird watching. You can watch them from the comfort of your own home or yard.

Bringing birds to your backyard

There are several things a beginning birder can do to attract birds to his or her yard.

“A bird bath is an essential need for birds,” said Dr. Madeline Kalbach, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Calgary. “They will come to bathe and drink.”

It is important to keep the baths clean to help prevent the spread of disease among birds.

You can also plant a bird-friendly garden.

“Gardening with native plants provides food and habitat for the birds. Huckleberry, salmon berries and other fruit-bearing trees or shrubs will help to attract birds to one’s yard,” Kalbach said.

Tube-like flowers are welcome additions to a bird garden. Hummingbirds are partial to these kinds of flowers, Kalbach said.

Peninsula resident David Ryan is an avid and evolving birder. He offered tips for attracting birds to your yard.

“For habitat, bird houses are helpful. Cultivating native vegetation also encourages bird visitors,” Ryan said.

Keeping parts of your yard “messy” or “rough” with some unmowed areas, untended vegetation and brush piles is good for birds, Ryan said.

“Timing yard work around nesting and breeding seasons also helps our bird friends and keeps them coming to your yard,” Ryan added.

Bird feeders are popular with birding enthusiasts, beginners and experienced alike.

Kalbach suggested putting up feeders containing appropriate seeds such as black oilseed, which are the most nourishing of the sunflower seeds.

Other birds prefer different types of seeds, she said. Finches enjoy niger or thistle seed while birds that feed on the ground often enjoy white millet. Suet is also enjoyed by chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers.

You don’t have to buy ready-made suet blocks or suet block holders. Recipes can be found online and cookie cutters or small empty cat food cans make great suet holders.

Many bird lovers have probably fed bread to birds and ducks, perhaps tossing bits to them on a lake or pond. They gobble it up and they’re no longer hungry, right? Wrong.

“It’s terrible for them,” Ryan said.

Too much bread can cause weight gain and malnutrition in birds. The bread expands in their stomachs and they think they are full.

Photography is also often a part of bird watching. Peninsula resident and contributing photographer for the Chinook Observer, Jane Webb, started photographing birds waiting for other wildlife to show.

“Then it became a challenge,” Webb said, “to not only photograph birds sitting but in flight.”

Largely self-taught, Webb likes to photograph birds that hunt or fish.

Enriching lives

Birds offer much to enrich our own lives.

“Appreciating birds also means understanding and appreciating the world around us,” Ryan said. “Whether it’s your own backyard or some far-flung vacation spot, being in tune with birds helps us connect to the places in which we live, work and play.”

He hopes appreciating birds encourages people to take better care of areas they live in.

A person’s interest in birds can be the result of family influence, a general interest in the outdoors or good old-fashioned curiosity.

Kalbach said her interest in birds began as a result of her family’s interest in wildlife and nature.

“My favorite aunt and uncle were avid birdwatchers and belonged to a local naturalists’ club,” she said. “I was invited to join when I began teaching. The naturalist club sent me to a provincial-wide naturalist club camp. From then on birding and nature became major interests.”

Ryan got into birding a little later in life.

“Birding didn’t really become a focus until I got older, started working as a forester and met a friend who introduced birding,” Ryan said.

A seminal moment came for Ryan when he and that friend were hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

Ryan said the thing that made his day for he and his friend was when they were sitting on a high bald mountain and suddenly a cyclone of hundreds to nearly a thousand small birds came swirling up around them before moving on.

“My friend was smiling and laughing the rest of the day after having that experience with gray-crowned rosy finches,” Ryan said. “They are an extreme habitat bird and were a signal to him of just how special a place we were in. That was my turning point.”

Books:

“Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America”

“Peterson’s Field Guides”

“Golden Guides”

 Apps for smart phones:

Merlin app from Cornell Lab

Audubon Bird Guide