Bird Books and Binoculars

Before I went to Yellowstone as a newlywed 8 years ago, I only knew 3 birds. They included: ducks, seagulls, and birds. Everything I saw could be classified into one of those 3 categories. While in Yellowstone, we got really excited about a particular woodpeckery-looking thing with orange underneath its wings. Being a chronic question asker (I sometimes ask questions just to see if people really know what they are talking about), I asked the ranger on duty what might fit this description. He rather rudely replied that he had no idea, but it was mostly likely a robin. This led me to buy our first bird book for $20 (the national park price). Since then, we have picked up several other books.

Our favorite books are the Birds of [state] series by Stan Tekiela. We have purchased Birds of Utah (and been through 2 copies) as well as Birds of Idaho. These books are super-easy for the beginning birder because they are color-coded. Most books categorize birds by types: shorebirds, raptors, finches, etc., but this book has birds categorized by color. So, if you see a bird with orange under its wings, you flip to the orange section. Then, the birds are listed in order of increasing size. So, the last, largest bird in the white section is the Pelican. This makes bird identification easy. The other benefit to this book is that it contains only birds that you might find in Utah. More technical, wider-ranging books frustrated us as beginners because we'd think we'd found our bird, only to realize that it can only be seen in eastern Canada! We've also found that Stan's books give the most thorough information about birds, and we love the "Compare to" section. This section refers you to similar birds, so if you find a bird in the book that looks sort of like the one you see, the book directs you to all the birds that are similar. It is truly a beginning birders dream. 

If you feel a little more advanced, our second book recommendation is the National Audubon Field Guide for your area (we own the Rocky Mountain and Southwest versions). These books are more thorough and typical of birders books. They classify by family, but they are fairly simple to use. The bonus is that these books can help with mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, bugs, and even some plants. 

This is the book that has Utah in it--I never would have listed Utah as a southwest state.

We love this one because most of the birds are in Utah, and we use it when we go to Yellowstone.

Though we've bought other larger, more complex books, we use them mainly for child entertainment, and not for bird identification.

As for binoculars, we have several types. You can pick up a very large pair for around $25 if you hit the right sale at Big 5 Sports. They are classified as 10 x 50s and allow you to pick out about anything. They are pretty clunky for hiking and walking, but great for the car. For the kids, we have picked up much smaller pairs ($8-$15 at Big 5). These would be more like 7 x 23s. (For binoculars, the first number is how much closer the image appears, and the second is for image quality.) We also purchased a spotting scope that lets you see the ticks on a deer's back at 500 yards, but it is so difficult to aim and focus that it rarely makes an appearance.

Our 3 year-old using our large binoculars.

Without a good pair of binoculars, you won't be able to see much. And we've found that with practice, even our 5 year-old can use the binoculars pretty well.

Here are some birds we have spotted WITHOUT our binoculars.

Wild turkey up Provo Canyon

Gray jay by our picnic table in Yellowstone

Common nighthawk on the roof of our house.
He sat there for about 4 hours so we could use our bird books to identify him.