Bird Watching free essay sample

In this research paper about birds and bird watching it includes the learning of what exactly bird watching is, the best places to bird watch in the world, where to find birds for bird watching, the greatest time of year (seasons), as well as the worst time to consider bird watching, the many diverse species of birds that you might see at the various different bird watching locations in the world, and even the supplies needed while bird watching. The Study of Birds and Bird Watching Information Bird watching, some call it birding, is a hobby where you stare and observe birds in the wild in their natural, home environment. People have been spotting, watching, and studying birds for hundreds of years. Trying to find out more about the many different types of birds we see today. Bird watchers of today identify the birds they spot by taking pictures or drawing sketches of them, but a few centuries back, they used to shoot and mount the birds that they identified in their natural habitat. We will write a custom essay sample on Bird Watching or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page One of the most famous bird watchers was John Audubon. He killed hundreds of birds including new species he found. He then drew or sketched drawings of these finds which were published in 1840. Audubon got a high amount of praise for these drawings and sketches. Later, The Audubon Society was created in the early nineteen hundreds. It was created in appreciation of the huge role he made to the discovery, identification and description of bird species in the U. S. It was also created to help protect the habitat for threatened and endangered bird species, to inform communities about birds, and to encourage more scientific expansion pertaining to the life of birds and how we can help them. wiseGEEK,2011) The best time of the day to go bird watching for birds that hunt during the day is  in the morning or at dusk. One  to  two hours after dawn and then one to  two hours before the sun finishes setting. The best time to start bird watching is around 7 a. m. and to finish around 11 a. m. At that time of the day, the raptors are most active because their food sources are most active during the d ay and the raptors are usually hungry after the long night. Eagles and hawks use  thermals  to help them take  off and soar. That’s why we can see them a few hours after sunrise, when the air warms up and the thermals are developed. (www. thinkquest. org/, 1992) For the birds that hunt at night, the best time to watch is between 11p. m. and 3 a. m. The most appropriate weather to bird watch would be days with strong winds. Days with heavy rain are not suitable for bird-watching because it’s not likely that the birds will fly around when it’s raining. (Birding. com, February, March, May,  and  October are the months in which bird watching is the most popular. In the month of February, birds try to locate places where  they can  build their homes. The majority of the birds will come back to the same place every year. They soar around often while locating a home with their songs claiming their reproduction territory. The month of March is a month of courtship flying. (www. library. thinkquest. org, 2007) Male birds draw in the females with songs or stunning feathers. In April,  the birds typically hatch their offspring and probably won’t be flying much. In the month of May,  the adult-raptors are flying around and getting food for their offspring. In June,  young offspring are being taught to fly, and seeing young fall while learning is a not uncommon. We can  observe  birds without buying any particular equipment, there are several things that may help you see a bird, hearing,  or recording birds. A digital camera would come in handy. If you see a bird that you don’t know or recognize, you might want to take a picture of it, and then show the picture to an expert or compare the picture to the pictures in your field guide. If bird watching becomes ahobby, it will be worth buying a camera with very sharp lenses and zoom to get the most detail as possible of the unfamiliar bird. A pair of binoculars or a telescope makes the bird seem closer to you, making you able to see the close up details of the bird. While on a bird watching trip, many people bring a pair of binoculars or a telescope, sometimes even a bird guide. These bird guides will help you to spot and know what certain bird species are. Although the majority of bird watchers are pretty well-informed, a guide confirm identification of birds spotted, and helps birders who may be traveling in land they haven’t explored before. Many bird watchers have a â€Å"bird watching life list†, which is a paper that they carry around that helps them to keep up with the birds they have seen and the birds they haven’t seen yet. Also, a sound recorder would be helpful. Since it can be hard to identify some types of birds, you could record what you hear and   play it back later for identification by an expert. Extra gear that a bird watcher may find to need include heavy weight boots for different land they aren’t used to and layered clothes to help deal with the changing weather. As for Florida, it’s thought of as â€Å"a birdwatchers paradise. The perfectly mild weather, location and diverse surroundings attract over 470 different species of birds. Many experienced bird watchers suggest getting a field guide for the area where you would want to go birding. A field guide is a booklet with  images  of the birds and guidelines for classifying them. After you become comfortable with the v arieties of birds in your area, bird watchers say people interested in bird watching would like to have the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America in the 3rd edition. For young birders, we recommend the Peterson First Guide: Birds. It explains and depicts 188 typical birds and it will not be too much to take in. Another recommended read is the Stokes Field Guides. (http://www. birding. com, 2011) To attract birds to watch, providing food, water, nesting materials, and natural habitat can attract birds to your backyard, and making it easier to spot them for bird watching. Almost 80 percent of wildlife habitat in the United States is in private lands, and an average of 2. 1 million acres each year is converted to residential use. Probably the easiest way to attract birds would be by getting a bird feeder. Birds are attracted to black-oil sunflower seeds. It’s high in fat, and because it’s so small, it’s easier for the birds to handle and to crack open. Different bird species have different preferences, but almost all will eat the sunflower seed, or mixtures of different seeds. Some enjoy suet, beef kidney fat. Hummingbirds prefer nectar. Species such as jays, nuthatches, and woodpeckers, readily consume peanuts. Also allowable would be popped popcorn (unsalted, no butter) shelled sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, soaked rasins, pieces of fruit, like oranges, fruit seeds of melons or apples, and grapes. Birds chew their food in the muscular part of their stomach called the gizzard. To help with the grinding, birds swallow small, hard materials such as sand, small pebbles, ground eggshells, and ground oyster shells. Grit, therefore, attracts many birds by itself. Oyster and egg shells have the added benefit of being a good source of calcium, something birds need during egg laying. If you decide to provide eggshells, be sure to disinfect them first. You can boil them for 10 minutes or heat them in an oven (20 minutes at 250 degrees). Let the eggshells cool; then crush them into pieces about the size of sunflower seeds. Put the crushed up eggshell in a dish or low platform feeder, separate from your seed feeders. (birds. cornell. com,2011) Birds like woodpeckers and chickadees build holes in tree trunks for nesting and roosting. Species such as wrens, bluebirds, and some ducks and owls nest in cavities that other birds have made. Nest boxes provide birds a place to raise their chicks. Different birds build different types of nests, from twig piles to hanging cups. For the best results, learn what types of nests your regular backyard birds prefer and offer nesting sites that are best for their needs. birding. com, 2011) You should provide shelter at different levels for birds that prefer both high and low shelters. Shelters near feeders are popular with birds since they can quickly retreat if they feel threatened by feeding. (aboutbirding. com,2011) You can also use plants as shelter for some birds. Some of the birds eat what is on those plants, so it could double up where the plant would be not just a food source, but shelter as well. A place with clean water may attract different types of birds for drinking and bathing spot. A few alternatives for a bird bath would be ponds, waterfalls, or streams. Moving or flowing water will attract the most birds because they are more visible to the birds and they can also hear them from far distances. Birds that in winter need water, especially when ponds and streams are frozen. Thats a chance for birdwatchers to attract birds to the backyard by setting out a small bird bath. Around the world there are many places you can bird watch but here are the ones that are considered the best places in the entire world to bird watch. First, in Southern Arizona. Around the Tucson and the San Pedro River, is one of the finest areas of North America for year-round bird-watching. Its grasslands, wetlands, forests and narrow canyons with creeks are the ideal place for birds in the area. Conservation areas such as the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge are good if you want to look for gray hawks, or the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area for vermilion flycatchers. Types of quails, roadrunners and, five types of hummingbird are found in the southern part of Arizona. Also good is the natural parts of Florida. Florida has great diversity in habitat and vast areas with both temperate and subtropical climates. Consequently its home to a wide variety of birds, from the burrowing owl to the cerulean warbler, the crested caracara to the bobwhite quail. A great many are found only there, which makes a visit at any time of year a unique experience. The Florida snail kite lives in the everglades and feeds almost exclusively on apple snails in the shallow fresh water, the Florida scrub jay prefers sparsely covered land with low trees, while the Florida grasshopper sparrow inhabits prairies, eating insects and seeds. Eilat, in southern Israel, is perfect for birding. Its on a major migratory route which brings 400 species over in spring and autumn. The mountains have black kites, levant sparrow hawks and lanner falcons, while the northern rift valley and the meadows, salt marshes and parks around the city include buff-bellied and red-throated pipits, scrub jays, warblers, Timmins’s larks and desert finches. The International Birding and Research Centre arrange night tours to see pharaoh eagle owls and Nubian nightjars. This Caribbean island is home to 350 bird species that are only found there. One of them, the bee hummingbird, is the smallest bird in the world. It’s only two inches long. Its wings beat 80 times per second. The best areas for bird-watching are the undeveloped natural regions, In mangrove swamps or the limestone formations in the Vinales national park for the chance to see roseate spoonbills, zapata wrens, Fernandinas flicker and Cuban pygmy-owls. Wollongong, Australia one hours drive from Sydney, is one of the best places in the world for seabirds. 108 different species of birds have been spotted in these waters. Of the 108 species, there are Solanders petrel, the rarely seen mottled petrel, the abundant wedge-tailed shearwater and the uncommon manx shearwater. Of the 20 species of albatross seen here, you can find an Indian yellow nose. A trip inland to the Blue Mountains you might catch a look at of a satin bowerbird, a red-browed tree creeper or the common rock warbler. Falsterbo in southern Sweden is the spot for the autumn migration of about 500 million birds from northern Europe and Russia each year. You can see half a million bramblings and chaffinches in just one morning. The lighthouse at Ottenby, is a good base to see their modest numbers. The lighthouse is surrounded by heathland, and you can see not only vast flocks of larks, buntings and pipits but also raptors such as honey buzzards, red kites, ospreys, merlins and goshawks. The Camargue, a enormous wetland in the middle of the river Rhone delta, is one of the most important birding areas in western Europe. On the migration route from North Africa, it provides a rest-and-refueling stop for many species, as well as being a protected nesting site for thousands of greater flamingos in late spring and early summer. (Close by are the hills of Les Alpilles, where you can spot Bonellis eagle and the blue rock thrush. To the east of the marshy Camargue is an area called La Crau which, curiously, is completely dry and home to pin-tailed sandgrouse and other desert birdlife. (The Gaurdian,2008) Goa, India has rich and diverse birdlife. It has a mixture of habitats coastal, mangroves, forest, river estuaries and cultivated fields to support a wide range of different species of birds. In the paddy fields you can see golden plover, ruddy breasted crakes and cinnamon bitterns with others, while in the grasslands youll find yellow-wattled lapwing and ashy-crowned finch-lark. On quiet beaches such as Morjim there are brahminy starlings, barred buttonquail and the hard-to-spot crab plover. If youre lucky you may have an bump into the striking white-bellied sea eagle. The Tatras national park, an area of Slovakia on the Polish border, is the place to find owls. Ural, Tengmalms and pygmy owls and the Eurasian eagle-owl all nest in the area. The high, forested mountains are well-known in their deciduous sections for at least five types of woodpecker, including the Syrian and grey-headed. Where corncrakes have all but disappeared from our landscape, here their grating call can often be heard in the meadows. (The Gaurdian,2008) Higher up the mountains, in the conifer forests, you can find capercaillie, hazel and black grouse. Eagles and sakers can be found flying in the sky.