“06880” readers know Tracy Porosoff from her gorgeous photos, of all things Westport. She has a great eye for the beauty around us.
Today she shares something else: advice about birdwatching. Tracy writes:
Living in Westport, we are fortunate to have access to so many natural wonders, like our beautiful beaches.
However, an even closer treasure awaits outside everyone’s window, in their back yard: birdwatching.
This simple pastime can provide tremendous joy, relaxation, and a sense of satisfaction. You can:
- Hear the gentle tap, tap, tap of a red breasted woodpecker on a tree branch.
- Appreciate the vivid colors and patterns of a blue jay.
- Watch a white-breasted nuthatch hop backwards down a tree trunk.
- See a black-capped chickadee get close as you refill the birdseed.
- Admire the stately Northern cardinal posing in the grass.
- Listen to the beautiful song of the aptly named song swallow.
- Marvel as hollow-boned creatures perch on the tiniest branch.
Goldfinch (Photo/Tracy Porosoff)
Audubon says that being in nature, and birding in particular, improves mental health and cognitive function, making people happier.
To become a backyard birder you don’t need to go anywhere, buy any equipment or even break a sweat. You can lure birds to your yard by hanging a feeder filled with bird seed.
And to enhance your understanding of what you are seeing, some helpful technological aids can guide you. Here are a few:
The free Merlin app recognizes bird songs, to identify the birds you are hearing. It provides names, photos and additional sound recordings of each bird it identifies.
Here are some birds Merlin identified in just a couple of minutes outside:
Use Apple’s Visual Look Up tool on your iPhone or iPad to snap a photo of the bird you see. Then tap the Info button at the bottom of the screen to identify the bird.
The All About Birds website also provides lots of information about birds. Just type in a few descriptive words.
Install a Smart Bird Feeder that comes with a camera, microphone and even AI identification features.
Some additional resources:
Local bird-related organizations:
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Northern cardinal (Photo/Tracy Porosoff)
Thank you Tracy. I always enjoy seeing your photos on 06880.
Thank you, Tracy! Great ideas!
Yep, we put up bird feeders this year, and now we have a zillion birds! It’s wonderful, but now they’re eating us out of house and home. I don’t know how much longer I can afford to feed my kids with all the birdseed and peanuts they’re going through!
Great job Tracy they are wonderful as all your photos
We love to do this in our backyard. I sit outside with my son and we watch all the birds. Thank you for sharing this with us. I may even get one of those bird feeders with a camera and microphone and AI. That is such a great idea. ❤️
What a fabulous, uplifting & lovely post! thank you so much!!!
Huzzah! Great article! Thanks Tracy.
The “Birds of Connecticut Field Guide” by Stan Tekiela is fabulous. It’s small, has large pictures, provides a page of useful information for each bird and brilliantly arranges birds by COLOR so you actually have a chance of easily identifying what you’re “watching”. Great for adults and kids alike.
As an avid birdwatcher I must correct some of the bird names listed, it’s red bellied woodpecker, and song sparrow. I urge everyone to get the ap Merlin, to identify bird songs!
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a gold mine of information and has been around for a very long time. My husband, then an undergrad at Cornell and a student of Doc Allen, worked with him (Arthur Allen) and Albert Brand at the inception of the Lab at Sapsucker woods where the early birdsong recordings were made. A leftover parabola from WWI was discovered in the attic of one of the Quad buildings and that parabola became instrumental (no pun intended) in the early birdsong recordings.
if we really want to help
our birds , we need to turn lights out at night and cut out the unnecessary commercial lighting too. millions and millions of birds are confused by lighting up our night skies and have died during migration as a result . we in Westport can start to set an example, house by house .