Beginner’s Guide to Birdwatching: How to Get Started, Gear and Tips

If you’re thinking about taking up birdwatching, or birding, you’ve landed in the right place. I grew up on a small island in the Seychelles called Bird Island, home to literally millions of nesting seabirds, and my parents and most of their friends were avid birders who spent a good chunk of my childhood holding a pair of binoculars up to my eyes and explaining what I was looking at. I’ve been a professional photographer for over 30 years since then, and I’ve photographed birds everywhere from those Seychelles seabird colonies to the shoebill swamps of Uganda and the puffin cliffs of Iceland. Every single photo in this guide is one of ours.

The good news for you is that you don’t need to travel anywhere exotic to enjoy this. Depending on where you live, you can probably see birds just by looking out of your window, which makes birdwatching one of the most accessible hobbies there is. Pretty much anyone can take it up, at almost no cost.

Below I’ll share what I’ve learnt about getting started, from choosing your first pair of binoculars (the bit where most people get stuck), through identifying what you see, attracting more birds to your garden, and finding places to go. I hope it helps you get out there!

 

What You Actually Need to Start Birdwatching

You need surprisingly little to get going. A pair of 8×42 binoculars, a way to identify what you’re looking at (a free app like Merlin plus a regional field guide), and a bit of patience will cover almost everything for your first year of birding.

For your very first outing, you don’t even need to leave home. Pick a still morning, head to your nearest park, wetland, or your own garden an hour or so after sunrise when birds are at their most active, and just watch. Put names to what you see with the app, jot down anything you can’t identify, and build from there. That’s really all there is to it. Everything else in this guide is about doing more of that, better.

 

What Is Birdwatching?

As the name suggests, birdwatching (or birding) is simply the activity of watching birds. It’s a form of general wildlife observation, and it can be done either as a recreational hobby or for scientific purposes.

You can birdwatch with no equipment at all, though most people use a pair of binoculars. You can also use a telescope or spotting scope, or a camera. Many wildlife photographers are birdwatchers too, although our end goal is usually a good photo rather than the simple pleasure of watching.

You can even birdwatch virtually, by tuning into bird webcams online. These are often positioned somewhere hard to reach, like inside a nest or on a remote cliff, and they’re a lovely way to see species you’d never normally get close to.

 

The Benefits of Birdwatching

Birdwatching has a lot going for it.

First, it’s an easy and inexpensive hobby to pick up. You can start without any equipment, and you can do it almost anywhere, including your garden, your balcony, or just out of your window.

It’s also wonderfully accessible. People of any age or level of mobility can do it, on their own or in a group. We find it really relaxing, and there’s decent science behind that feeling. A study from the University of Exeter found that people living in neighbourhoods with more birds, shrubs, and trees were less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and stress. More recent research from King’s College London reached similar conclusions, finding that everyday encounters with birdsong lifted people’s mood for hours afterwards.

It gets you outside and takes you to new places in search of birds you haven’t seen before, and it often leads on to other interests, like plants, insects, and other wildlife. If you have kids, it’s a great family activity that helps them connect with nature. It’s an easy win all round.

 

Best Binoculars for Birdwatching

Binoculars are what you’ll be using for the majority of your birdwatching, so this is the one purchase worth getting right. A good pair lets you get a closer view for identification, and lets you watch birds from a distance without disturbing them.

If you take nothing else from this section, take this: for general birdwatching, a pair of 8×42 binoculars is the sweet spot, and it’s what most birders (and bodies like the RSPB and Audubon) recommend. The 8x is the magnification and the 42 is the size of the front lens in millimetres. That combination gives you a bright image and a nice wide field of view without being too heavy to hold up for long. If you want something smaller for travel, an 8×25 or 8×32 trades a little brightness for a lot less weight.

Here are the pairs we’d actually point you towards, from budget to premium. We own or have used everything on this list. If you want the full rundown, our dedicated guide to the best binoculars for birdwatching goes deeper on each pick, with more options and full specs.

Binoculars	Magnification	Weight	Waterproof	Approx. price	Best for
Vanguard Vesta 8×25	8×25	241g (8.5 oz)	Yes	Around $100	Compact travel and starter use
Celestron Nature DX 8×42	8×42	629g (22 oz)	Yes	Check price on Amazon	Best-value first full-size pair
Nikon Monarch M5 8×42	8×42	629g (22 oz)	Yes	Check price on Amazon	A step up in glass quality
Vanguard VEO HD2 8×42	8×42	709g (25 oz)	Yes	Around $400	The pair we use most days
Swarovski EL 8.5×42	8.5×42	~800g (28 oz)	Yes	Check price on Amazon	Premium, a buy-once pair

A few notes from actually using these. If you’re just dipping a toe in, the lightweight Vanguard Vesta 8×25 is a great little starter that’s still waterproof and fogproof, and light enough to slip in a pocket. When you’re ready for a full-size 8×42, the Celestron Nature DX 8×42 is the one we’d steer most beginners to. It’s the best value on the list and does almost everything the pricier pairs do.

We use the Vanguard VEO HD2 8×42 ourselves most of the time. They’re bright, still reasonably compact, and use good extra-low dispersion glass in a carbon-composite body. I should mention I’ve been a Vanguard ambassador for a number of years, so I’m biased, but they’ve earned their place in my bag. We also own a pair of Vortex Diamondback HD 8×42 binoculars, which we’ve been very happy with. The price crept up for a while, but it has settled back down, which makes them a strong buy again if you can stretch past the Celestron. Amazon stock on these is intermittent, so if the listing is unavailable, B&H carry them.

At the top end, we had a pair of Swarovski binoculars loaned to us for a few months, and they are magnificent. Wonderfully bright, sharp right to the edges, and built like they’ll outlive you. They also cost as much as a decent second-hand car, so they’re very much a treat-yourself (or a lifetime) purchase rather than a beginner’s buy.

One money-saving note: if you buy any of the Vanguard gear direct from Vanguard, you can save 20% by using our exclusive discount code FindingTheUniverse at checkout. It works on any product on the site, across the Vanguard USA, UK, Australia, Spain, and Germany stores.

 

How to Choose: What the Specs Actually Mean

If you’d rather understand the numbers and pick your own pair, here’s what to look at when you’re comparing binoculars. Don’t be put off, it’s simpler than it looks once you know what each spec does.

 

Magnification

This is the first number, and it tells you how much bigger the bird will appear. Birdwatching binoculars usually run from 7x to 10x, and around 8x is the most recommended. An 8x pair makes a bird look eight times closer, which is plenty.

Bigger isn’t automatically better here. A 10x pair sounds tempting, but the narrower field of view makes it harder to find your subject in the first place, the extra weight tells after a while, and the higher magnification exaggerates every little hand wobble, so the view can end up shakier. For most people, 8x is the happy medium.

 

Objective Lens Diameter

The second number (the 42 in 8×42) is the diameter of the large front lens in millimetres, known as the objective lens. A bigger objective gathers more light, which gives you a brighter image, useful in dawn and dusk light when birds are active. The trade-off is that bigger lenses usually mean more weight and more cost.

General birdwatching binoculars tend to have an objective between 25mm and 42mm, and 42mm is the common recommendation because it balances brightness against weight nicely. You can get larger objectives, but they’re really aimed at low-light uses like hunting or stargazing, and the extra bulk makes them a chore to carry around all day.

 

Weight

Weight matters more than beginners expect. You’ll be holding these up to your eyes for long stretches and carrying them the rest of the time, so you want a pair you can use without your arms complaining.

Binoculars range from around 300 grams (10.5 oz) up to over 1.3 kg (3 lbs). For everyday birdwatching that involves walking between spots, I’d suggest keeping under about 750 grams (26.5 oz). Your build and what you’re comfortable with will shift that, but 750g is a sensible upper limit for most of us. If you mainly watch from a window at home, weight matters far less.

 

Waterproofing

Birdwatching is a year-round activity, and if you live somewhere like the UK, as we do, you’ll be out in the rain sooner or later. Binoculars come with everything from no water resistance at all, through some splash resistance, up to fully waterproof pairs that shrug off whatever the weather throws at them.

We went for fully waterproof binoculars so we never have to think twice when it starts drizzling. I’d say some level of water resistance is worth having for everyone, and full waterproofing is ideal if your budget stretches to it.

 

Glass Quality and Coatings

Like a camera lens, binoculars are built from glass elements, and the quality of that glass makes a real difference to the view. When you’re looking at higher-quality pairs, the spec to watch for is extra-low dispersion glass, usually written as ED glass. It reduces chromatic aberration, the odd coloured fringing you sometimes see around the edges of a subject, and gives you a cleaner, sharper image.

The coatings on the glass matter too. Coating the lenses with the right materials improves how much light passes through, which again means a brighter image. You’ll see terms like “fully multi-coated” on the better pairs, and that’s what you want.

 

Dioptre Control

Here’s one that trips people up. A pair of binoculars has a separate lens for each eye, and our two eyes rarely focus identically. Normally our brain corrects for that, but the magnification of binoculars exaggerates the difference, so you need to set them up for your eyes to get a sharp image.

Most binoculars have two focus controls. The main focus wheel adjusts both barrels together and is what you’ll use most of the time. The second, the dioptre control, adjusts one barrel independently to account for the difference between your eyes. It’s usually on the right-hand barrel, and you set it once. There’s a good video here that walks you through it. Almost all binoculars have a dioptre control, and some fancier ones let you lock it so it can’t be knocked out of place.

 

Other Features

For something that looks simple, binoculars come with a surprising number of extra features, like adjustable eye cups, fog proofing, and different construction materials. These all add to what the binoculars can do, and to the price, so think about what you actually need. Adjustable eye cups, for example, are really useful if you wear glasses. Buy for how you’ll use them, not for the longest spec sheet.

 

Price

There’s a huge range of binoculars out there, starting from around $60 and climbing past $1,000. You do get more as you spend more, but the returns diminish once you reach the higher end. As a rough guide, expect to pay:

• $50 to $150 for a budget pair
• $150 to $500 for a good mid-range pair
• $500 and up for a premium pair

If you’re just starting out, a budget pair is a perfectly sensible place to begin. If you think birding might stick, a mid-range pair will keep most people happy for years and is where we’d suggest spending if you can. You can always upgrade later, and a decent starter pair is easy to hand down to a friend or family member when you do.

 

Field Guides and Bird ID Apps

The other thing that will really improve your birdwatching is a way to identify what you’re seeing. These days that means two things: a good app, and ideally a regional field guide as well.

 

The Best Free Bird ID Apps

If you download one thing, make it Merlin Bird ID. It’s free, it’s made by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and it’s available for both iOS and Android. It identifies birds from a photo, from a description, or by their song through its Sound ID feature. Sound ID currently covers North America, Europe, and a growing list of other regions rather than the entire planet, so it’s worth checking your area is included, but where it works it feels like magic. You point your phone at a hedge full of chirping and it tells you what’s in there.

The other app I’d get is eBird, which is also free and also from the Cornell Lab. eBird is where birders log what they see, and more than 100 million sightings are added to it every year. That makes it brilliant for two things: keeping your own list of what you’ve spotted, and using its Explore Hotspots feature to find the best birding locations near you (or near wherever you’re travelling), along with what’s been seen there recently.

Between Merlin for identification and eBird for finding birds and keeping track, you’ve got most of what you need, for free, in your pocket.

Learning birds by sound takes time, but it’s worth it, and Merlin’s Sound ID gives you a huge head start. If you ever want to hear a specific species, you can also just type its name into a search engine (say, “green woodpecker sound”) and you’ll find plenty of free recordings.

 

Field Guide Books

An app is fantastic, but a physical field guide still has its place in a daypack, and it never runs out of battery. Look for one focused on your region, a country or even a state, with full-colour photos or illustrations, and ideally notes on where and when you’re likely to see each species.

Some popular guides by region:

• National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America
• Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America
• Collins Complete Guide to British Birds (the one we use in the UK)
• RSPB Handbook of British Birds
• RSPB Pocket Birds of Britain and Europe
• The Australian Bird Guide

There are plenty more out there covering other regions, as well as tighter guides that focus on a single state, island, or province. If you’ll be walking a lot, a lighter, more focused guide is often the better call, simply because you’re more likely to actually carry it. And if you’re heading somewhere further afield, a destination guide is well worth packing. We always travel with a pocket guide to the birds of East Africa on our Uganda trips, for instance, where the birdlife is on another level.

 

How to Attract More Birds to Your Garden

If you have any outdoor space at all, a garden, a balcony, or a yard, you can bring more birds to you. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of the hobby, and you’re helping your local birds at the same time, which matters most over the colder winter months when food is scarce.

A quick word of caution first: do a little research so you don’t accidentally cause harm. Don’t feed birds foods they wouldn’t naturally eat, and don’t put nest boxes anywhere a cat can reach them.

Here are the easiest ways to attract more birds:

• Put up a nest box (you can buy one or build your own). Get the right size for your local birds and mount it somewhere safe from predators.
• Install a bird feeder and keep it topped up, as birds will come to rely on it once they find it.
• Add a bird bath for birds to drink from and bathe in.
• Provide shelter where birds can stay warm and safe overnight.
• Plant shrubs, trees, and flowers that birds eat, along with hedges and wildflowers that draw in the insects birds feed on.

One thing we’ve learnt the hard way: squirrels will happily empty a feeder in an afternoon. What’s worked for us is fitting baffles to our feeder poles, which are simply domes or cylinders that stop the squirrels climbing up. They’ve saved us a small fortune in birdseed! You can read more ideas for attracting birds to your garden over at Gardeners’ World.

 

Ideas for Where to Go Birdwatching

Even if you’re lucky enough to have plenty of birds in your own backyard, you’ll want to see birds elsewhere too, especially if you live somewhere built-up.

The wonderful thing is that birds live just about everywhere, from Alaska to Antarctica, and in every kind of habitat, from city parks to wetlands to Arctic tundra. Because many species prefer a very specific type of habitat, like moorland, forest, or a freshwater lake, even two nearby spots can turn up completely different birds. Mixing up where you go is the fastest way to grow your list.

Here are some reliable places to see a good variety of species:

• City parks
• Forests and any kind of woodland
• Wetlands and estuaries
• Rivers and lakes
• Cliffs and coastlines
• Regional and national parks
• Bird and nature reserves
• Hiking trails

If you’re not sure where to start near you, this is where eBird’s Explore Hotspots feature really comes in handy. It’ll show you the best-rated birding spots in your area and what’s been seen there lately. And if leaving the house isn’t an option, there’s always a bird webcam somewhere in the world worth a look.

 

Joining the Birdwatching Community

If you find yourself wanting to talk birds with other people, share your sightings, or just have some company on your outings, it’s well worth getting involved with the birding community. Millions of people around the world enjoy birdwatching, and there are groups for it almost everywhere.

These groups come in all shapes and sizes, online and offline. I’d really recommend finding a local birding group, where you can meet people who know your patch and pick up tips you’d never find in a book. A quick search on the internet or on social media will usually turn something up. Facebook alone has hundreds of bird-related groups.

Another option is to volunteer with a local nature reserve or conservation group. It’s a great way to meet other birders, spend time outdoors, and give something back all at once.

Finally, consider joining a national bird organisation, such as Audubon in the USA or the RSPB in the UK. Membership usually comes with a magazine, and often perks like free entry to nature reserves and discounts on gear. There’s a good amount to learn online too. The All About Birds site from the Cornell Lab is packed with identification help and tips, the RSPB and Audubon sites are full of advice, and Bird Forum bills itself as the largest online forum for birdwatchers, with hundreds of thousands of members chatting about all things birding. For the global picture, BirdLife International is a partnership of more than 100 national conservation organisations and the official Red List authority for the world’s birds.

 

Beyond Beginner: More Birdwatching Equipment

Once birdwatching has gone from a passing interest to a real hobby, you might want to add some kit to make it easier and more enjoyable. None of this is essential, but here’s what’s worth considering.

 

Outdoor Clothing and Gear

Birdwatching is usually an outdoor pursuit, so decent outdoor clothing is a good investment. Most of it is just general outdoor kit, but a couple of things are worth thinking about for birding specifically. Muted colours that blend into the background, like greens and browns, help you avoid startling birds. There’s a lot of overlap here with hunting clothing, since the aim is the same: not standing out. Bright, luridly coloured waterproofs are great for being spotted if you’re lost on a mountain, less so for creeping up on a shy warbler. If you’re planning a birding trip somewhere like East Africa, our full safari packing list covers the neutral-colour rule, and everything else, in more detail.

A few bits worth having:

• A pair of waterproof boots, because you’ll end up in muddy, wet places sooner or later.
• Waterproof outdoor clothing, at least a rain jacket and ideally waterproof trousers, plus layers for the temperature.
• A hat, either wide-brimmed for sun or warm for the cold, depending on where you are.
• A comfortable daypack around 20L to 30L to carry your guide, binoculars, snacks, water, and a spare layer. One with a waterproof cover is a bonus.

 

A Spotting Scope

Binoculars top out around 10x to 12x. If you want to get really close, say for distant waterfowl or seabirds on a far cliff, you’ll want a spotting scope, which can reach 40x or more. We’d suggest at least 40x magnification for birding.

We use a Vanguard Vesta spotting scope. Ours is an older model that’s since been replaced, and the current equivalent is the Vesta 560A, a 15-45×60 scope that’s waterproof and fogproof and comes with a tabletop tripod. There’s a good range of scopes on the Vanguard store (remember the FindingTheUniverse code for 20% off), and plenty of options on Amazon too.

 

A Tripod or Monopod

A scope’s magnification is far too high to hand-hold, so you’ll need a tripod or monopod to steady it. A monopod is lighter and quicker to reposition for a moving bird, but won’t stand on its own. A tripod is heavier but rock-steady, though slower to swing onto a new subject. You can also get tripods that convert into monopods, like Vanguard’s VEO 3 GO range, which give you the best of both. A good travel tripod works well for a scope, and our guide to the best travel tripods has plenty of ideas.

 

A Portable Blind

A blind (or portable hide) is a lightweight cover that conceals you in the field. They’re popular with birders, wildlife photographers, and hunters alike, because they let you get much closer without spooking your subject. You’ll still need patience for the best results, but a portable blind can make a real difference.

 

Photographing Birds: Gear and Tips

As a professional photographer, I love the chance to photograph birds, and a good shot can help with identification too. I won’t turn this into a full photography tutorial, but here’s what you need to know to get started, plus links to our more detailed guides if you catch the bug.

For decent bird photos, you’ll want a camera with a lens that reaches roughly a 400mm equivalent focal length, which gives you about the same reach as an 8x pair of binoculars. My guide to the best cameras and lenses for bird photography breaks down exactly which kits hit that reach at each budget. You can get there with a DSLR or mirrorless camera plus a telephoto lens, or with a bridge camera that has a long built-in zoom. If you’re not sure where to begin, a bridge camera is a great entry point, being lighter, cheaper, and more than capable of lovely results. My own parents shoot birds in their backyard with a bridge camera and get fantastic photos. See our guide to the best bridge cameras for options across all budgets.

If you’re travelling to photograph birds and other wildlife, our guide to the best safari camera gear goes much deeper on lenses and accessories, and our safari photography tips apply directly to birds.

 

Camera Settings for Birds

Bird photography really splits into two situations, and they need different settings. The first is a fairly still bird, sitting on a branch or on the ground. The second is a bird in flight (often shortened to BIF), moving through the air.

For a stationary bird, start at around 1/250th of a second, f/8, and set your ISO to suit the light. That’s slow enough to keep ISO down and fast enough for a bird that isn’t doing much.

For birds in flight, you need to freeze the motion, so wind the shutter speed up to at least 1/1000th, open your aperture as wide as it’ll go to let in light, and push the ISO up as needed. Flight shots often call for ISO anywhere from 1600 to 6400 or beyond, and that’s fine. A slightly noisy but sharp image beats a clean but blurry one every time, and you can clean up noise in editing far more easily than you can rescue motion blur. If your camera shoots RAW, use it, as it gives you far more room to recover a tricky shot.

Two more things make a big difference. The first is composition: even with a bird filling the frame, think about where it sits and what’s behind it. The second is light. Try to keep the sun behind you so it’s lighting the bird rather than silhouetting it, and you’ll get richer colours, especially on iridescent species like a kingfisher.

Above all, be patient. Birds keep their own schedule, and bird photography is often a long wait punctuated by a few frantic seconds. If you want to go deeper on any of this, our online travel photography course covers the fundamentals from the ground up.

 

 

Planning a Birdwatching Trip

Once you’ve seen most of the species in your own area, you might fancy travelling to see birds elsewhere. Planning a birdwatching trip opens up a whole new list of species, and it’s one of our favourite excuses to travel.

The first question is where to go. I’d aim for somewhere with completely different birds to those you get at home, which gives you the most new species to enjoy, while factoring in the usual considerations of budget and how long you can get away for.

Think about who you’re travelling with, too. If your partner isn’t as bird-obsessed as you are, a remote island packed with seabirds and nothing else might be a hard sell. Most destinations let you mix birding with other things to do, though, so there’s usually a happy compromise to be found, even if the trip ends up a little less bird-focused than you’d ideally like.

On a trip that isn’t all about birds, day tours are a great way to fit some birding in, like puffin watching in Iceland or a private birdwatching tour in Cancun. Closer to home in the UK, somewhere like the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick makes for a brilliant day out with gannets, puffins, and more.

If you want a trip built entirely around birds, there are multi-day tours to destinations known for their birdlife, like this four-day birdwatching tour in Peru’s Manu National Park. You can browse a much wider selection of birdwatching tours here to get a feel for the options.

Wherever you go, if the birds are unfamiliar, we can’t recommend hiring a local bird guide highly enough. A good guide knows exactly where and how to find the local species, and will help you see and identify far more than you would on your own. Some of the best birding days we’ve had, from the shoebill swamps of Uganda to the seabird colonies I grew up around in the Seychelles, came down to a guide who knew precisely where to look.

 

A Few Beginner Mistakes Worth Skipping

We’ve made most of the classic beginner mistakes ourselves over the years, so here’s what we’d tell anyone just starting out.

Start with your binoculars, not a camera. Plenty of people rush straight to expensive camera gear and skip the one tool they’ll use every single time they go out. A modest pair of binoculars will teach you far more, far faster, than a big lens will.

Go early. Birds are most active in the couple of hours after sunrise, and a still, quiet morning beats a busy afternoon almost every time. If you go out at lunchtime and see nothing, that’s usually the reason, not a lack of birds.

Learn your local birds first. It’s tempting to chase rarities, but getting confident with the common species in your own area makes everything else easier, because you’ll instantly know when something unusual turns up.

And don’t get hung up on gear. Better binoculars and a longer lens are lovely, but they’re not what makes birding enjoyable. The person who goes out often with a cheap pair will see far more than the person with top-end kit who rarely leaves the house. The best gear is whatever gets you outside looking.

 

Birdwatching FAQ

 

What do the numbers on binoculars mean?

The two numbers describe magnification and lens size. In a pair of 8×42 binoculars, the 8x is the magnification, so birds appear eight times closer than with the naked eye, and the 42 is the diameter of the front (objective) lens in millimetres.

A bigger first number means more magnification but a narrower, shakier view, and a bigger second number means a brighter image but more weight. For general birdwatching, 8×42 is the combination most birders recommend.

 

What magnification is best for birdwatching?

For most people, 8x hits the best balance. It’s bright, it gives you a wide field of view that makes finding birds easier, and it’s steady to hold.

You can go up to 10x for a bit more reach, but the narrower field of view and extra shake make it harder to use, especially for beginners. Start with 8x and you won’t go wrong.

 

What are the best lightweight binoculars for birdwatching?

If weight or grip is a concern, perhaps for older birders, children, or anyone who struggles with a heavier pair, look at 8×32 or 8×25 binoculars rather than the standard 8×42. They gather a little less light, so they’re marginally dimmer at dawn and dusk, but they’re noticeably lighter and easier to hold steady.

A compact pair like the Vanguard Vesta 8×25 (around 240 grams) is a good example, and light enough to hold up comfortably for as long as you like.

 

Do I need binoculars to start birdwatching?

No. You can start birdwatching with nothing but your eyes and a bit of curiosity, and it’s a perfectly good way to find out whether the hobby is for you.

That said, a pair of binoculars transforms the experience by letting you see detail and identify species you’d otherwise miss. It’s the first thing we’d recommend buying once you know you enjoy it.

 

What is the best free bird identification app?

Merlin Bird ID, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is the one we recommend. It’s free, and it identifies birds from a photo, a short description, or their song, and it works on both iOS and Android.

It pairs well with eBird, also free and also from the Cornell Lab, which helps you find good birding spots near you and keep a record of what you’ve seen.

 

When is the best time of day to go birdwatching?

Early morning, in the couple of hours after sunrise, is usually best. Birds are most active then as they feed after the night, and the light is lovely for watching and for photography.

Early evening can be good too. The middle of a hot, still day is generally the quietest time, so don’t be discouraged if a midday walk turns up little.

 

Further Reading

That’s our beginner’s guide to birdwatching. We hope it helps you get started with what’s become one of our favourite ways to slow down and enjoy the outdoors, wherever we are in the world.

We’ve written a few other guides you might find useful:

• Planning to photograph birds? A bridge camera is a popular choice for its long zoom in a compact package. See our guide to the best bridge cameras across all budgets.
• Heading on safari or a wildlife trip? Our guide to the best safari camera gear covers cameras, lenses, and accessories in detail.
• If you’re using a scope or a heavier lens, a good tripod helps. See our guide to the best travel tripods for ideas.
• If your camera supports RAW, you should use it. Our guide to RAW in photography explains why.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, pop them in the comments below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.