How long did it take you to know your birds?...

this saturday, my daughter's saturday school program began and so my weekly visits to the celery farm in NJ also started...

still a bit frigid but have been able to see some nice birds in the area... and have high hopes later on...

so as i was walking around to a different spot, i notice some wild turkeys (or so i think...)
and started taking some pictures... when a person walks up to me and notices the gear and ask me what kind of turkey they are...

"um... wild turkey?" and followed up by "sorry just started this hobby and i have yet to know the bird names by heart or by sound..."

normally i refer to them as the "blue one" "pretty one" "that bird" and probably can only identify only 4 or 5 kinds of birds...

so how long did it take for you guys to know your birds?
i'm sure you've been at this much longer than me...

maybe i should start carrying around a bird guide...

hehehe...

yes i'm bored and it's a monday...

thanks.

Al

No answer here as I learn daily!
Then hard to admit, forget soon...

I've been a bird watcher for about 40 years and I can ID most British birds, but I still need to check the guides sometimes to decide on ID. I certainly don't know them all for sure.

Ive been birding for just over 2 years
I know a couple hundred local birds but I still have to look many up.

Its a learning process that never ends.

jhayesvw wrote in post #15676343
Its a learning process that never ends.

Exactly what I would have said. If I don't know what it is immediately I look it up or post it if I can't find it online.

3 weeks of birding and 50 more years to go
I learn every time i photograph a birds

I'm constant learning; even with our more common, local birds. But, I can ID most of our commoners and some of the uncommons pretty reliably after @4 years of watching/photographing​. I always carry an ID book or the Audubon app on my iPhone, for when we're out in the field, though.

hmm... that's actually a good idea... onward to the app store!

Constant learning process for me, I'm still learning in my local area and been here 57 years. It seems that recently I've seen and identified some birds that are not native to my area or at least rare and uncommon. This may also partly be because of my new interest in photography, shooting birds in the winter when other activities are slow and I'm just more aware of all birds. Identification by internet and forums such as this one make it more interesting and less difficult.
I had never seen ( or noticed) a Carolina Wren before here in NE Missouri until this March 2 when one came out of my wood stack and flew onto my front porch.Having seen some excellent photos posted in the bird forum only a day before I immediately knew what it was.
Kinghong1970, you should have been seeing the Eastern when you saw the wild Turkey in NJ but there are also the Osceola, Rio Grande and Merriam's in the U.S., some hybrids in Kansas/Nebraska and the Goulds South of us in Mexico. For me this only adds to the difficulty of identifying all the birds, yes, this is going to take awhile!

kinghong1970 wrote in post #15676604
hmm... that's actually a good idea... onward to the app store!

Ibird pro.
Worth every penny

Wait till you start shooting Pipers and plovers!

I knew only a small fraction of the local bird life before I started photography. My method was shoot first, ask questions later. I quickly gave up on the idea of carrying a field guide. Too much to carry and no time to spare on the prowl. Get the shot and use the photos for ID back at base camp!

Snydremark, thanks for that tip on audubon app.
i had a nat geo app and found it decent at best... only because if you don't know the name of the bird, you're stuck at scrolling up and down by their limited categories...

the Audubon app is much nicer... gives me more control over search and even have more sounds per bird in their datas...

have not checked out the ibird... will do.. but for now, this is a keeper for me.


guess now, instead of this, that, blue, red, or pretty bird... i'll reply by saying... "hold on, i have an app for that..."

hahaha

Hey there, i am a new birder (under a year) and i personally like to have a book that i can look through after i have walked around or when i get back to try to identify the bird. Other then that, you can treat it like "homework" and study your butt off.

I recently went to the three or four bird stores around the area (where they sold bird seeds and bird feeders) and found one that had a lot of books and audio CDs to help practice learning bird songs. And the latest thing that i bought was this wonderful DVD for around $20 that showed around 150 or so of the birds in my local area of Virginia and Maryland. The DVD groups them in types of birds and then shows video and photos of the bird, and plays the bird's songs and calls. I found this an amazing tool (if you can manage to sit through it for long enough) because it stimulates both visual and audio memory for each bird.

So you have the book to look through all the birds and really pin point what you've seen, you can use the audio CD's to practice listening and learning bird songs while driving your car or reading the news in the morning, and you can get the DVD to watch at night! If you do this, and spend a month or two doing this a few days a week you could easily start naming birds out in location.

If you want the name of the DVD i can find out and post it.

kinghong1970 wrote in post #15675966
so as i was walking around to a different spot, i notice some wild turkeys (or so i think...)
and started taking some pictures... when a person walks up to me and notices the gear and ask me what kind of turkey they are...

"um... wild turkey?" and followed up by "sorry just started this hobby and i have yet to know the bird names by heart or by sound..."

Al, your answer was perfect! They are simply called "wild turkey". There's really no way you could've said it any better!
There are a few subspecies of Wild Turkey. The ones you saw were undoubtedly the Eastern subspecies, as they are the only ones to live in the northeastern US.

I am still learning my birds. Gamebirds and waterfowl I've known since childhood, but the songbirds such as warblers and such I still struggle with (except for the more common ones).

I have several photographer friends that know every bird out there - by sound! That puts me to shame.

Thanks inernets... i'd appreciate if you have the time and give us info on the DVD.. it'll be of much help to all of us noobs

Tom,
thanks!
i will get some pics up of the wild turkey up soon... gotta find my damned card reader... lol

for some reason, watching that Jack Black and Steve Martin movie, The Big Year iirc, kinda put me to shame... i guess i'm not pro enough... hahaha...