Birds noticed by non-birders (1 Viewer)

[Farnboro John]

Non-birders aren't paying attention.

Some years ago I was doing a multi-day hike (+ birding of course) in the Himalayas. In one of the lodges, I was studying my field guide to figure out the ID of one of the birds that I had seen but not yet identified. A curious man approached me...
Man: Are you watching birds?!
Me: Yes!
Man: But.... there are no birds here!
Me: So far I have seen 103 species during this hike
Man:

Or, when hiking the Torres del Paine O-circuit in Patagonia:
Man: I wanted to see condors but I haven't seen any
Me: I've seen them every day, usually multiple times. There was one overhead just 10 minutes ago
Man:

I met a man at the Albufera, by the canal, years ago. He asked me where a good place to see a Hoopoe would be. I silently pointed upwards at the Hoopoe flying just over our heads. 'Nuff said.

John

 

[KenM]

I met a man at the Albufera, by the canal, years ago. He asked me where a good place to see a Hoopoe would be. I silently pointed upwards at the Hoopoe flying just over our heads. 'Nuff said.

John

Sure ‘e wasn’t a birder.🤣

 

[Farnboro John]

Sure ‘e wasn’t a birder.🤣

No bins!

John

 

[YuShan]

A friendly lady approached me one day in a city park when she saw me walking around with binoculars. There was some exotic looking green + red bird around, probably some escaped exotic bird! I pointed out that the Green Woodpecker she was referring to is a native British Bird .

 

[pianoman]

A friend of mine is a non-birder but has keen eyesight and is also a good photographer. He makes quite a good partner on walks because he will often see something before me and ask me what it is. Every so often it is something interesting.

 

[KenM]

No bins!

John

Reminded me of the German lady (with bins) asking me If I’d seen the Tropicbird flying over my head, with me stood standing there garrotted with camera and bin straps….to which I replied no, thinking don’t be silly as if I’d miss that……😮😮😮😮😮

 

[pianoman]

Incidentally, who else gets regular Peeping Tom "jokes" when wearing bins, from people who think it's the first time I've heard them

 

[Andy Adcock]

Incidentally, who else gets regular Peeping Tom "jokes" when wearing bins, from people who think it's the first time I've heard them

I know someone whose neighbour called the police on them.

 

[tdenight]

I know someone whose neighbour called the police on them.

😂

 

[Strontium Dog]

A friendly lady approached me one day in a city park when she saw me walking around with binoculars. There was some exotic looking green + red bird around, probably some escaped exotic bird! I pointed out that the Green Woodpecker she was referring to is a native British Bird .

I remember when I was around 10 years old, birdwatching in Essex (Hatfield Forest perhaps), a local gentleman asked me what I was looking at.

I told him I had seen a Goldcrest, and he responded, in best Estuary: "Them's rare, ain't they?"

Nope bub, they "ain't". And to think they think us Scousers talk funny...

 

[Harrier22]

One of my favorite spots here in Chicago is a pond with an island in the middle that often hosts blue, black and green herons along with kingfishers. Sadly, most people are staring at their smartphone with ear buds firmly placed so they walk by completely detached from the natural world around them...

 

[Paul Chapman]

I remember when I was around 10 years old, birdwatching in Essex (Hatfield Forest perhaps), a local gentleman asked me what I was looking at.

I told him I had seen a Goldcrest, and he responded, in best Estuary: "Them's rare, ain't they?"

Nope bub, they "ain't". And to think they think us Scousers talk funny...

It must have been a highlight meeting Dick Van Dyke.... 😮

 

[Andy Adcock]

As the better weather and longer daylight hours arrive, there's also the seasonal avalanche of enquiries "What's this bird? I've never seen one like it before" about Dunnocks of female House Sparrows...
MJB

I once had a colleague who knew I was a birder, rush up to me almost breathlessly to describe a bird which was currently outside our building. 'It's blue and green' he excliamed and as I got outside, expecting some exotic, he stood pointing at a Magpie which, to be fair, is blue and green in the right light.

 

[Trinovid]

As a non-birder myself I’ll make a shortlist of ones I’ve always enjoyed, starting with the earliest.

Robins
Hummingbirds
Eagles
Owls
Bluejays
Herons, egrets and all other long-legged types
Ravens
Woodpeckers
Uncaged parakeets

 

[birdmeister]

While on a university trip to Costa Rica once, a non-birding classmate told me to come to the front of the line to see a "chicken" on the side of the trail. Turned out it was a Great Tinamou, the only tinamou species that we actually saw on the trip!

 

[Patudo]

Large raptors do get noticed - red kites in the UK, turkey vultures in the States, white-bellied sea eagles in Singapore. Although lots of folks seem unaware of even these. I once watched a white-bellied sea eagle deftly hook out a fish from Singapore's Marina Bay and fly to a (tall) set of streetlights with no one on the busy boardwalk seemingly either having noticed it or bothering to look at it.

Peregrines get noticed too, but more easily if there's a large RSPB sign and a bunch of tripods/scopes pointing up to them - otherwise the great majority of people can be oblivious of them. Thousands of people probably pass the birds that perch up on the Tate Modern every day, unknowing and unseeing.