Is your knowledge of birds limited to “brown ones, blue ones and red ones”? Or some variation thereof? Not to worry! Birdwatching, or birding to the initiated, covers a wide range of bird identification skills and nature appreciation. The important part is to have fun and get outside to enjoy nature at its best. Birding doesn’t even require any equipment at its most basic level, but a few tools – binoculars and a bird book or smartphone app – really help. For the most part, birdwatching does require one to be outside to observe birds, with the exception if you watch a birdfeeder from indoors. To get started, the best activity is to join a bird walk, or “fieldtrip”, in your area. Check out Field trips on our Calendar. You can learn on your own but a field trip with experts will be a huge boost, not to mention having more eyes and ears available to find birds. Leaders won’t overwhelm you with scientific details, instead they’ll point out key traits to look for when you see a bird, how to manage a pair of binoculars when trying to locate a bird high in the trees overhead and point out the songs to help identify birds.

Want to do more? Please join one of our chapters to hear informative talks and meet fellow birders in your area. Our name, MOS, with “Ornithological” as our middle name may sound intimidating but it’s not meant to be. We have members at all skill levels and backgrounds, coming together to enjoy sharing observations and places they visited. You don’t have to be member to attend one of the meetings so if you’re curious, check out the Calendar for monthly meetings.

Please check out the other links in our menu: Backyard Birds, Bird Feeding, Where to buy bird seed, and Birding Equipment. And look at the helpful links on our Resources page, where you’ll find other environmental groups and links to lots of fun and helpful information about birds.