Tips and tricks for spotting birds in tall/dense forests (2 Viewers)

[JB_Birds]

Hello! I am relatively new to birding and the last few times I have been out I have heard far more birds that I have seen (particularly red breasted nuthatches). I know you may identify by sound but I not confident enough yet for most birds to mark them down solely based on song. What tips do you expert/semi-expert/birding for longer than a month folk have for me for getting the most out of my birding outings? Some things that I have found helpful are:

• Finding a section of forest with shorter trees/a clearing
• Standing still and silent for around 5-10 minutes and bird activity tends to pick up (although those you share the trails with won't likely do the same)
• Trying to follow the sound of a bird if you can pick it out and hear that it is moving from place to place
• Just staring at the tree tops as long as it takes

 

[Mono]

Sitting and waiting is good. Watch for movement with your naked eye. Practice getting your binoculars up to your eyes without moving your eyes from the target. The Merlin app is great for bird song but after it has found something go back and listen to the recording at that spot, that will help you learn the calls for yourself. If you can find an elevated spot and look down and across the canopy. Don't just focus on birding trips, keep your eyes and ears open when generally out and about.

Most of all enjoy the experience, don't let it put you off. The more time you spend the better you will become at noticing things.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Obviously singing birds may be hard to see, but it's worth trying, as sometimes you'll find the bird and, if you do, it'll also help you learn the songs.

Birds may be easier to see in some parts of the forest e.g. areas that edge on to other habitats can often be busier than the forest interior. Time of day is also significant e.g. early morning, although sometimes things are best a little later when the sun initially starts to hit the trees.

Also, I'd strongly recommend looking out for flocks of birds. In most forests mixed flocks will form, particularly outside the breeding season. Finding these can help you to see a lot of birds.

 

[MiddleRiver]

Obviously singing birds may be hard to see, but it's worth trying, as sometimes you'll find the bird and, if you do, it'll also help you learn the songs.

Birds may be easier to see in some parts of the forest e.g. areas that edge on to other habitats can often be busier than the forest interior. Time of day is also significant e.g. early morning, although sometimes things are best a little later when the sun initially starts to hit the trees.

Also, I'd strongly recommend looking out for flocks of birds. In most forests mixed flocks will form, particularly outside the breeding season. Finding these can help you to see a lot of birds.

This. ;-)

Where we live, if you hear our see Chickadees, there’s a good chance there’ll be some other birds (including interesting warblers) in with them. Foraging birds attract other birds as the signal food and safety.

 

[JB_Birds]

Sitting and waiting is good. Watch for movement with your naked eye. Practice getting your binoculars up to your eyes without moving your eyes from the target. The Merlin app is great for bird song but after it has found something go back and listen to the recording at that spot, that will help you learn the calls for yourself. If you can find an elevated spot and look down and across the canopy. Don't just focus on birding trips, keep your eyes and ears open when generally out and about.

Most of all enjoy the experience, don't let it put you off. The more time you spend the better you will become at noticing things.

I haven't heard the practicing not moving your eyes from the target while bringing up the binoculars! That sounds like it would help a great deal, normally I am looking for the larger patterns in branches and trunks to orient myself to the target. I have been using merlin religiously (that and Ebird) for helping out with identification and logging everything. Thanks for all of the advice!

 

[JB_Birds]

This. ;-)

Where we live, if you hear our see Chickadees, there’s a good chance there’ll be some other birds (including interesting warblers) in with them. Foraging birds attract other birds as the signal food and safety.

Ah yes, I do love the chickadees. Haven't been able to spot a warbler mixed in yet but I do know they create mixed flocks so I am keeping my eye out!

 

[jurek]

• dress in dull mid- to dark green and brown colors. Camo in not needed, sometimes it can get you into trouble.
• move in an unhurried way, keep quiet. It is usually better to stay on forest tracks than trash into bushes.
• use Merlin sound ID app
• look and listen for moving feeding flocks in which non-breeding songbirds often congregate. In the north there are tits, warblers, treecreepers etc, in the tropics the same type of flocks contains exotic species and northern migrants. Try following such a flock as long as possible, and also wait for a short time for marauders.
• if you don't see a bird, it is often blocked by leaves. Move slightly left and right until you find a window where it is not obscured. This is a very common mistake, even by experienced birders. They keep trying to see a bird blocked by leaves from a single point until it flies away.
• If the bird is in the canopy, don't come under a tree and look vertically up - this makes no sense.
• Mostly in rainforests, it is worth finding a place where a forest track goes on a hill, stand there with a scope and scan tree canopies to the front and back. Tall dead trees often are favorite stopover points for birds moving in the canopy.

 

[JB_Birds]

• dress in dull mid- to dark green and brown colors. Camo in not needed, sometimes it can get you into trouble.
• move in an unhurried way, keep quiet. It is usually better to stay on forest tracks than trash into bushes.
• use Merlin sound ID app
• look and listen for moving feeding flocks in which non-breeding songbirds often congregate. In the north there are tits, warblers, treecreepers etc, in the tropics the same type of flocks contains exotic species and northern migrants. Try following such a flock as long as possible, and also wait for a short time for marauders.
• if you don't see a bird, it is often blocked by leaves. Move slightly left and right until you find a window where it is not obscured. This is a very common mistake, even by experienced birders. They keep trying to see a bird blocked by leaves from a single point until it flies away.
• If the bird is in the canopy, don't come under a tree and look vertically up - this makes no sense.
• Mostly in rainforests, it is worth finding a place where a forest track goes on a hill, stand there with a scope and scan tree canopies to the front and back. Tall dead trees often are favorite stopover points for birds moving in the canopy.

Thank you for all of these tips! I did realize yesterday that the pants I have been wearing for most of my outings are bright yellow, probably not the greatest fashion choice for birding. Instead of coming up from under the tree and looking vertically, do you move horizontally until you can see the peak of the tree? Also, do you have a favorite bird that comes through Switzerland? I know some folks in Switzerland so I make it out there every once in a while.

 

[Montereyman]

Important to is the time of day with many songbirds most active at dawn and again an hour before sunset. Meadows are where the food is for birds and where most species will be found.

Visual ID can be very difficult and at Yosemite the number of great gray owls was grossly underestimated based on visual sightings. When someone started to do recordings and identify individual owls there were actually many more owls in the park.
k.

 

[jurek]

Instead of coming up from under the tree and looking vertically, do you move horizontally until you can see the peak of the tree?

Moving around is better. However, during foreign trips, the preferred method is to split your time between canopy watching and ground-watching and leave some birds which would require too much effort. Unless they sound like a particularily wanted species, of course!

Switzerland has not many canopy birds, but I have a soft spot for grouse, owls and nightjars, simply because they are difficult to see

 

[dantheman]

• look and listen for moving feeding flocks in which non-breeding songbirds often congregate. In the north there are tits, warblers, treecreepers etc, in the tropics the same type of flocks contains exotic species and northern migrants. Try following such a flock as long as possible, and also wait for a short time for marauders.

And more on this point of flocks perhaps ... some species tend to hang out on the periphery and only loosely associate with the flock ... eg tits going through the canopy, but a Firecrest may be lower down and within earshot of the main group, and moving in the same general direction as it.

Also you can position yourself at points where the flock has to move between obvious trees etc - you can predict and move ahead and then proactively see interesting or different birds as they fly and then watch them where they relocate to.

With both points above - watch the whole scene as much as you can rather than focussing on just one (known) bird at a time, including using your peripheral vision. All probably really obvious but still.

 

[pianoman]

The only advice I would have is - stay in one place and observe for a while, then move briskly to another likely location and stay still again. In my earlier days I was tempted to creep around the whole time in the mistaken belief that I wasn't spotted - but the birds can actually see you a mile off and slip away into the foliage. Once you settle, they will emerge gradually, also your eyes can get attuned to the location you are in.

 

[dantheman]

And US forest birding can be hard/birds high up in the canopy I understand, and not always comparable to eg W Europe. There are techniques to avoid permanent neck damage from constantly looking up I believe ;-)

 

[pianoman]

These days I carry round a small folding camp chair - in addition to being more comfortable, it helps you stay still

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

If you're looking for canopy birds, a good strategy (at least if the forest is in an area that's somewhat hilly) is find a path along a ridge. Then you'll have trees going down the slope and can potentially be at eye level with the higher parts of the tree.

 

[kb57]

I'd agree with @dantheman - my partner was in western Canada this spring, and found actually seeing the birds she was hearing and identifying on Merlin qualitatively more difficult than in Western Europe.
There are a number of reasons for this - in North America there is much more vertical niche differentiation in forest birds (the classic 1958 scientific paper by Robert MacArthur explored this concept (well explained here: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/0012-9623(2008)89[448:KYWTOT]2.0.CO;2?2/full=#n110)), including more canopy specialists than are found in Europe;

• at least in Pacific NW tree stature of mature and old-growth forests (ca. 40m) is much greater than the 20-25m norm of Western Europe, so its just physically more difficult to see into the canopy; and
• you're more likely to be in coniferous or mixed forests in USA, whereas in temperate regions of Europe, broadleaved trees predominate, and conifer plantations are largely avoided by birders as having little avian interest - in deciduous woodland you have a window of opportunity after the start of the breeding season and before canopy leaf expansion when forest birds are much easier to locate by song, then see.

As well as the excellent advice proffered by others, I would also suggest looking for sites where bridges cross wooded valleys - ideally foot bridges or quiet roads where you can safely stand - and using those as vantage points to look down onto the canopy.
The other thing is to go with the season and abandon forest birding for a while in favour of wetland sites. Shorebird migration is in full swing now, and viewing is generally a lot easier in these habitats, particularly where hides / blinds and viewing screens allow you to get close up - although identification will bring you a whole new set of challenges...

 

[JB_Birds]

I'd agree with @dantheman - my partner was in western Canada this spring, and found actually seeing the birds she was hearing and identifying on Merlin qualitatively more difficult than in Western Europe.
There are a number of reasons for this - in North America there is much more vertical niche differentiation in forest birds (the classic 1958 scientific paper by Robert MacArthur explored this concept (well explained here: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/0012-9623(2008)89[448:KYWTOT]2.0.CO;2?2/full=#n110)), including more canopy specialists than are found in Europe;

• at least in Pacific NW tree stature of mature and old-growth forests (ca. 40m) is much greater than the 20-25m norm of Western Europe, so its just physically more difficult to see into the canopy; and
• you're more likely to be in coniferous or mixed forests in USA, whereas in temperate regions of Europe, broadleaved trees predominate, and conifer plantations are largely avoided by birders as having little avian interest - in deciduous woodland you have a window of opportunity after the start of the breeding season and before canopy leaf expansion when forest birds are much easier to locate by song, then see.

As well as the excellent advice proffered by others, I would also suggest looking for sites where bridges cross wooded valleys - ideally foot bridges or quiet roads where you can safely stand - and using those as vantage points to look down onto the canopy.
The other thing is to go with the season and abandon forest birding for a while in favour of wetland sites. Shorebird migration is in full swing now, and viewing is generally a lot easier in these habitats, particularly where hides / blinds and viewing screens allow you to get close up - although identification will bring you a whole new set of challenges...

Oh I do love a good paper, thanks for sharing your expertise! I may just have to try doing more shore-birding for now, although I will admit I am less studied on shorebirds which is likely another reason I am drawn to the forests at the moment.

 

[JB_Birds]

These days I carry round a small folding camp chair - in addition to being more comfortable, it helps you stay still

If I may ask, is the chair you have a full sized chair (like with armrests)? Or is it more of a stool (one of those tripod style chairs)?

 

[MiddleRiver]

I'd agree with @dantheman - my partner was in western Canada this spring, and found actually seeing the birds she was hearing and identifying on Merlin qualitatively more difficult than in Western Europe.
There are a number of reasons for this - in North America there is much more vertical niche differentiation in forest birds (the classic 1958 scientific paper by Robert MacArthur explored this concept (well explained here: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/0012-9623(2008)89[448:KYWTOT]2.0.CO;2?2/full=#n110)), including more canopy specialists than are found in Europe;

• at least in Pacific NW tree stature of mature and old-growth forests (ca. 40m) is much greater than the 20-25m norm of Western Europe, so its just physically more difficult to see into the canopy; and
• you're more likely to be in coniferous or mixed forests in USA, whereas in temperate regions of Europe, broadleaved trees predominate, and conifer plantations are largely avoided by birders as having little avian interest - in deciduous woodland you have a window of opportunity after the start of the breeding season and before canopy leaf expansion when forest birds are much easier to locate by song, then see.

As well as the excellent advice proffered by others, I would also suggest looking for sites where bridges cross wooded valleys - ideally foot bridges or quiet roads where you can safely stand - and using those as vantage points to look down onto the canopy.
The other thing is to go with the season and abandon forest birding for a while in favour of wetland sites. Shorebird migration is in full swing now, and viewing is generally a lot easier in these habitats, particularly where hides / blinds and viewing screens allow you to get close up - although identification will bring you a whole new set of challenges...

Very interesting... ;-)

 

[pianoman]

If I may ask, is the chair you have a full sized chair (like with armrests)? Or is it more of a stool (one of those tripod style chairs)?

It's got a back and armrests and folds into a "roll" shape. These days I don't hike for miles and I can carry it in one hand when moving from spot to spot. For long hikes it might be a bit inconvenient