Chris’s Tips for Birding From Home
Our Colombian production company team has been working from home for almost six weeks now. We've been sharing lots of content about how we have been keeping our spirits up, staying fit and healthy, and maintaining a positive attitude during our time in 'self-isolation.' From tips for climbers and cyclists training at home to our top quarantine jams music playlists, our team has had plenty of advice to share.
Today it's the turn of our resident bird nerd and Head of Content, Chris Bell. As a hardcore birder, not being able to go out in search of exotic species every weekend has been a challenge for him. Still, he's been managing the avian withdrawal symptoms in many different ways. Here are Chris's top tips for birders stuck at home.
Top Tip – Stay excited
It's easy to get disheartened as a birder during this time stuck indoors, especially if, like me, you live in an urban apartment with minimal scope for window birding. I would say that my top tip for birders during this quarantine period is to stay excited and inspired. I'm lucky enough to live with another hardcore birder, so we've been keeping our spirits up by dreaming out-loud about all the trips we'll take when this is done. We've been sharing tips on the best places to spot certain species, and planning our future birding adventures. Even if you don't live with other birders, arrange video calls to share eBird lists, birding memories, and your target species. Maintaining that same level of birding excitement that I felt before this happened has kept my spirits up.
More of Chris’s birding adventures in Colombia: “In Search of the Harpy Eagle”
Chris on a birding adventure in Colombia earlier this year
Birding from Home
The concept of 'birding from home' differs vastly depending on your home. My parents are lucky enough to enjoy a large garden with an adjacent wood, so they can spot a good number of species during this quarantine period. Similarly, many of my Colombian birder friends live on farms or alongside forests, so they have built up pretty respectable checklists from their front yards. I, however, am stuck with a small Bogota balcony overlooking a single tree. My quarantine bird list is hovering around eight species (and one of those is feral pigeon).
But urban birding can be full of pleasant and unexpected surprises. The 'Urban Birder' himself, David Lindo, likes to inspire people with this simple message: "look up!" You'll be surprised what you can see even in the heart of the city, simply by being observant and taking the time to look. I managed to spot a migratory Willow Flycatcher from my balcony the other day. It was the first one I'd seen this year, and it made my day! Take binoculars on your exercise walks too: you never know what may show up, especially during spring migration.
Even if the birds you are seeing from home are relatively common by your normal birding standards, take the time to study their behaviour and get to know their habits. We all become better birders by taking the time to really understand the behaviour of common birds and this is the ideal moment to do just that. Birds we may normally dismiss as being “common” are suddenly our only options for birding, so it’s a good excuse to really appreciate their beauty. I think I'll be able to write a book about Rufous-collared Sparrows by the time this is done!
Book – A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration by Kenn Kaufman
About 75% of my home library is dedicated to books about birds, from field guides to glossy coffee-table books, so I'm pretty spoiled for choice in this category. My current favorite is this wonderful new book by birding legend Kenn Kaufman, author of the iconic birding road-trip book Kingbird Highway. A Season on the Wind explores the magic of spring migration through a close look at one season at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, a migration hotspot in Ohio. Not only is it a fascinating look at one of the most remarkable phenomena in the avian world, but I have also found it to be a comfort during this time stuck indoors. It's reassuring to think that, regardless of what's happening in the world right now, these tiny songbirds are still making the same epic journeys that they make every year. I've even been lucky enough to wave a few of them off from my Bogota balcony over the past few days.
Another birding book that feels extremely pertinent right now is Birds in a Cage by Derek Niemann. This book tells the story of four British POWs during the Second World War. All were bird-obsessed and made it through their years of confinement by observing and recording the birds they could see through the fences of their camps. One of them, John Buxton, wrote the beautiful book The Redstart based on his wartime observations of the eponymous little passerine. Another, George Waterston went on to be the director of the RSPB. Birds in a Cage is a story of inspiring resilience and has helped me put my current situation into perspective.
A Season on the Wind by Kenn Kaufman
Music – A Guide to the Birdsong of South America
I crowdfunded this unusual collection of music inspired by the birdsong of South America's most critically endangered birds back in 2014. The idea came from El Búho, an English electronic music producer. He also happens to be equally obsessed with birding and Latin America. When you combine those three seemingly disparate passions, you end up with this eclectic record!
Ten different South American artists were given a bird species from their country and charged with turning its song into a song of their own. The result is a diverse mix of musical styles and, even better, proceeds go to NGOs working on bird conservation in Ecuador. Personally, my favorite track is Lulacruza's Cucarachero de Niceforo – the Niceforo's Wren is one of Colombia's rarest endemic birds, and seeing it with my Dad near Barichara is one of my fondest birding memories. A second edition of the project, A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean, is coming out in June.
Movie or series – The Birders
OK, so I may be slightly biased with this selection. After all, this series of documentaries about birding in Colombia was made by WhereNext! But I started working with our Colombian production company after these films were made, and they're still my absolute favorite videos about birding in Colombia.
I've found that re-watching The Birders has been very therapeutic for me. I've birded in all the places where the project was filmed, and most of the protagonists are friends of mine. Seeing your own birding adventures reflected back at you on screen is comforting in this time of uncertainty, and inspiring for future adventures.
And even if you've never birded in Colombia before, we've pivoted the documentary to include a downloadable checklist so you can 'bird' the film from the safety of your own home.
We’ve Made It Easy to Bird Our Documentary Film “The Birders”
Online - #BirdTheFeckAtHome
I was invited on Facebook to join an amazing group called #BirdTheFeckAtHome. It's a global community of birders sharing their quarantine bird sightings in a bid to build a global list of birds seen from member's homes. So far the list stands at a quite frankly staggering 2,615 species. That's around 25% of all bird species on earth seen from people's homes! It just goes to show that our enjoyment of birds doesn't have to be limited during this difficult time. I'm loving seeing the variety of species that are common garden birds for some people: the parrots that visit people's gardens in Australia are just mindblowing. There's even a member in quarantine at an Antarctica research station! My Willow Flycatcher was also new for the list, so I did my small bit.
It's also worth joining any bird-related social media groups that you can find. I'm a member of several Colombia birding groups, and sharing my old bird photos on those has sent me on many trips down memory lane. Remembering old birding adventures may not be quite the same as living new ones, but it's the next best thing! I recommend following the Facebook page 'Birds Colombia' – they are hosting daily live talks by Colombian birders. *Shameless plug* I'm doing one on May 6th.
Learn more about our Colombian production company, or contact us directly.
For our latest WhereNext Live video, we present our resident bird expert Chris Bell in conversation with the National Audubon Society and the Colombian Embassy in Washington DC.