I’m a late bloomer. Especially when it comes to my passion: bird watching. (Also called ‘birding’ – in Flanders that term stands for making love, in the Netherlands it has no sexual connotation.) For me it started about thirteen years ago, when I went for a walk with a birdwatcher friend on Marken, where I lived nearby; There were always many meadow birds there in the spring and I suspected he would like that. For the record: I couldn’t tell a godwit from a redshank at the time. Indeed, on the first meadow of the peninsula, several birds were already walking on high legs through the grass (belonging to the category ‘waders’, but I didn’t know that either) and he was enchanted by the typical spring scene through his binoculars, full of cheerful, cheering bird sounds and even mating godwits. Then he gave his binoculars to me.
A defining moment in my life, in retrospect. Because from the first second I focused on a bird and then saw a godwit as if I were in the cinema, with an image so beautiful it looked like it came from a BBC documentary by David Attenborough, I was sold. A sigh, a groan, a shout of joy: one of these must have escaped my mouth, because I remember having a physical reaction to it – my heart skipping a beat, along with a great feeling of warmth and happiness. “I also want binoculars,” I said immediately. A day later I had one – the best purchase of my life.
Great feeling of happiness
This started a period in which I felt genuinely happy much more often than in all those years before. My new leisure activity turned out to give me so much more than just more knowledge of birds. I found myself going outside more often, even when the weather wasn’t great. That I took many more steps in one week than before I became a bird watcher. That I started feeling healthier, fitter, younger even. I suddenly laughed as cheerfully and often as ever, even though I was going through a difficult time privately. It was the combination of being more physically active and the great feeling of happiness that came over me when I was outside and watching birds.
Science tells me right: plenty Studies show that birdwatching is healthy for humansboth physically and mentally – not only are you enjoying the outdoors (and exercising), it also provides relaxation and reduces stress. Anyone who goes birdwatching will be able to disconnect from the daily worries and automatically get a better mood.
Apart from that, what is so nice or fun about it? Quite difficult to explain to those who have never looked through binoculars before, but let me give it a try. Bird watching is much more than just ‘seeing an animal’: it opens your eyes to the world around you. It turns out to be full of details that you had missed in your earlier life. It is possible that you initially see a small gray bird on a branch of a bush, which on closer inspection turns out to have a bright red head and black and yellow stripes on its wings. A goldfinch, your first! And: gosh, it’s so beautiful. Or take that very ordinary ‘sparrow’ (once you become a birdwatcher you will call it what it is actually called; the house sparrow): the chirping creature turns out to be a marvel of design if you look closely at it. Look, all those stripes of brown and gray! Even the bird that is most often looked down upon, the city pigeon, is actually much more beautiful than you thought as you passed by: a palette of different shades of gray with a beautiful green/purple iridescent neck. Oh well!
NRC Masterclass
Birding for beginners
Have you always wanted to be a bird watcher, but never knew where to start? In this five-part masterclass, NRC editor Saskia van Loenen takes you along. You will learn to recognize the most common bird species, she will tell you what you do and don’t need and why good binoculars are essential. After this masterclass you can go out into nature yourself.
Birds are simply fun and often beautiful creatures to watch. With those relatively fragile legs under that round belly and that beak stuck on their small head, they have a high cuteness factor (except for birds of prey, but they have other qualities). And let’s not forget their sounds. A singing blackbird on the roof in the early summer morning: your day couldn’t start better or more cheerfully. The cry of a tawny owl through the night, the melancholic nightingale through the bushes: within a second you imagine yourself in a fairytale world.
Anyone who enjoys beauty even a little bit – and likes to go to a museum, for example – will also have the experience of being enraptured by a beautiful painting when seeing any bird. If you love nature, enjoy being outdoors and enjoy the singing robin in the garden or the chickadees flying in and out of the birdhouse, then the time is ripe to become a ‘bird watcher’ – which means nothing more than: someone who enjoys watching birds.
Cliché image of birdwatchers
And no: you really don’t have to conform to the cliché image of bird watchers, dressed in camouflage clothing and fitted with enormous telephoto lenses, crammed together somewhere in the rain, peering at some rare bird in the distance. You can enjoy birds in your normal clothes and with whatever you happen to encounter while walking.
Another reason why bird watching is so much fun: it is not made too easy for you. To look properly at a bird, in most cases (apart from the pigeons on Dam Square) you need one small make a little effort. And sometimes a lot. Which, if successful, only makes the reward even better.
Birds also fascinate us because they hatch eggs. Because they are so mobile and quickly disappear from your field of vision. Because they (at least most of them) can sing so beautifully and they all have their own repertoire. And of course mainly because they can do something that we humans are secretly very jealous of: flying. We see clouds of starlings performing a beautiful aerial ballet, geese moving south in a V-shape, water birds landing on the water with their landing gear extended. A joy to watch – if you keep an eye for it.
Birds – there are almost 400 species in the Netherlands, of which 200 are breeding birds – also differ enormously in size, shape, color, song and rarity, so it does not quickly become ‘boring’. Anyone who goes out sees different birds every time.
The nice thing about bird watching is that you always keep learning and that it will never get boring. In fact, the more birds you see, the brighter the fire burns – because you increasingly realize how beautiful they are and how good it is for you as a spectator to be able to enjoy them. You will also notice that you naturally start to long for rarer birds that you don’t normally encounter – and they really never get boring. Tell a seasoned birdwatcher that you saw a bittern, a bullfinch, oriole or black woodpecker and he is immediately jealous, no matter how many times he has seen it himself. Not to mention the waxwing (look that one up). Rare birds, and certainly the most beautifully colored ones (kingfisher!) are the real treats.
Clockwise from top left: kingfisher, golden oriole, bullfinch, bittern and crane.
Illustration Kazuma Eekman
Everyone can do it
You may be thinking: those real birdwatchers are so good, I will never catch up, there is no point in focusing on this now. That’s what I thought at first too; When I sometimes heard a bird watcher shout the species name after just one beep or flying dot, I became despondent: I am stupid and I can’t do anything – that feeling. And indeed: I will never be as good as them, but how bad is that really? I’ve taught myself quite a bit in just a few years, just by starting from scratch and keeping at it. Moreover, as a beginner you have an extra advantage: in the first few years you will enjoy what you see much more than all those experienced bird watchers combined. Because there are still countless ‘firsts’ ahead (birds you see for the first time; ‘lifers’ are what seasoned bird watchers call them). That first bullfinch, the first kingfisher, the first great shrike, the first bittern, the first water rail, the first avocet: all gold-rimmed moments.
Anyone who wants to experience this really only needs one thing: a (good!) pair of binoculars. Unfortunately, they are not cheap: you can easily spend a few hundred euros for a pair of binoculars with which every sparrow or pigeon gives you a ‘wow’ effect – it is really the quality of the lenses that ensures this (and therefore also makes it pricey – but believe me: you will not regret that purchase). There are several binocular shops with a special outdoor area where you can try out different types.
And it also helps you if you have a little idea of which species you might encounter and where. A kingfisher is not found in the forest but near water; a black woodpecker only in wooded areas. For a bittern or bearded man you have to go to reeds, in wet meadows (‘plas-dras’) you will find meadow birds such as godwits, redshanks, oystercatchers and lapwings (but only in spring). You can also encounter many beautiful things in any city park, from finches to blackbirds and the bright green ring-necked parakeets (irritating? Just zoom in!). And even in the middle of the city you can encounter everything, from wildly singing starlings on lampposts to peregrine falcons bivouacking on high towers. There are birds everywhere. Now you just have to look at them carefully again.
Fortunately, there are many bird guides and apps that help you identify those birds, such as the – free – sounds app Merlin Bird IDwhich effortlessly recognizes most bird sounds and from which you quickly learn a lot while walking. After all, bird watching is largely done with your ears. Another good reason to leave those earphones out when you leave the house; the outside world is much more beautiful and you are a lot more relaxed if you are not always ‘on’. That singing blackbird will do the rest.
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