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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mathare" data-source="post: 3178622" data-attributes="member: 108071">I went on a guided birding weekend in the Dungeness area around 18 months ago, when I was still pretty new to this birding lark. And I was amazed at how our guide was picking out different species based on a quick fly-past but also on sound. I asked how he did it and it basically boiled down to experience. He knew his patch inside out but had also been birding for a long time.Since that trip I have noticed my own birding come on a lot. I have made a great effort to get out around my patch regularly, taking in different environments too to become more familiar with waders, gulls, passerines etc. Even then I carry a small field guide, just to have as a reference if I need it. I back that up with bins and camera, always looking to get an ID shot if I am not sure what a bird is so I can take a more detailed look at home.I also uploaded a couple of CDs of birdsong/calls to my laptop and mixed that into my music library so that when I am listening to "music" at work I get regular birdsong in there too and often bring up the player app to check what the bird is. But that's happening less and less often these days as I start to learn more calls & songs.I'm not one for reading field guides per se. If I see something unexpected - a Black Headed Gull in breeding plumage deep into winter, for example - I will check with the field guide to learn why it's a Black Headed Gull and not a Mediterranean Gull, for example. The distinguishing features may not all sink at that point but I hope enough sticks so that next time I can build on what I have remembered.I also find other birders to be a fantastic source of info. I don't actively go birding with others (except the missus) but at London WWT I often chat to others in the hides - see what they are on and what they have found. Most will quite happily share scopes (although I have my own) and point out birds as well as explaining why they are X and not Y or Z, as Andrea said above.I view this as my homework, in some ways. Building up my experience so that when I go abroad and see new birds I can at least describe them in terms of something I am familiar with. It sounded like a <common bird> or looked like a <....> only bigger - that sort of thing. I try to get a local field guide or search the internet for what I can expect to see in a given location and use that as a basis for my foreign birding. I like to note cases where I might see several similar but non-identical birds (maybe Northern Wheater and Desert Wheatear, for example) and look for information on relative abundancy as well as distinguishing features. I can't do that for every family but I always try and build on what I know and learn a little more each time I go out.</blockquote>

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