Category Archives: eBird

My Big Silly January

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Setting and surpassing goals plays a big role for many of us birders. Big Years, Big Months, Big Days, State Big Years, Bicycle Big Days, Global Big Days—the list of ways we challenge ourselves are endless. And while I’m no longer a big fan of Big Years that require burning up a ton of fossil fuels, Braden and I still partake in local challenges, or those that unfold seemingly on their own. Such was the situation I found myself in late January.

Thanks mainly to a vigorous day of birding with Braden on January 2nd, in which I found 47 species here in western Montana, and the surprise trip to Victoria that Amy planned for my 65th birthday (38 more species), by January 20th I found that I had seen 88 bird species for the month. They were awesome birds, too, ranging from Short-eared Owls and Golden Eagles here in Montana to Pacific Loons, Harlequin Ducks, and a Marbled Murrelet in Canada (click here). Interestingly, I realized that with ten days to go, I needed to see only four more species to make this my best January of birding ever! Even so, I had a lot of writing to catch up on and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to intentionally make the effort. A couple of things convinced me to go for it.

Lola played an instrumental role in advancing my Big January goals!

The first was that while walking our dog Lola in the neighborhood, I found my first Northern Pygmy-Owl of the year—a delightful little guy soaking up the last rays of sun high in a Ponderosa Pine. The next day—also while walking Lola, through Greenough Park—I espied my first American Dippers of the year. Three days after that, the year’s first White-breasted Nuthatch visited our backyard feeder, the first I’d seen there in a couple of years. Suddenly, just like that, I was one bird away from breaking my record. What, oh what, to do? Too much sittin’ on my butt and a forecast for a beautiful winter day answered the question. I called our friend Susan, who has been getting into birding more and more the past couple of years. I told her, “You know, there’s a Rusty Blackbird over near Deer Lodge, and we may be able to find some Snow Buntings. Do you want to go see if we can find them?” She also needed a birding break, so the next morning, we headed east.

Though we didn’t find Snow Buntings or the Rusty Blackbird, Susan was especially excited to get to know Rough-legged Hawks better.

We spent a delightful morning driving the roads between Deer Lodge and Anaconda. We may have seen a Snow Bunting, but it flew away before we could make a definite ID. We also saw the Rusty Blackbird—right as a couple of other birders scared it away. Since we couldn’t ID it ourselves, we didn’t put it on the list, either. Fortunately, in the parking lot that led to the Rusty Blackbird, we found four Horned Larks! Yay! I had it! A new January record!

Susan and I failed to get an ID-able look at a rare Rusty Blackbird. But note the famous Anaconda smelter stack in the distance!

But here’s the problem. Once you break one record, and realize that you are perilously close to another landmark—in this case, 100 birds for the month—it’s virtually impossible not to go for it. By now, I had revealed my January ambitions to Susan, and not only did she get as excited as I did about them, she was all in on getting me to 100 species for the month. As we pulled away from the Horned Larks, I said, “Are you up for driving by Discovery Ski Area on the way home?” “Let’s do it.”

Employees at Discovery kindly put out bird feeders that keep Pine Grosbeaks, Mountain Chickadees, and other higher-altitude birds nurtured during cold winter days.

Loyal readers of FatherSonBirding will recognize that in years past, Discovery Ski Area has been a go-to place for Braden and me to pick up several challenging species, and as Susan and I approached the parking area, we saw our first of these: Canada Jay. After parking, we visited the bird feeders and had a fun time picking up two others: Mountain Chickadee and Pine Grosbeak. Clark’s Nutcracker was the only bird that didn’t cooperate with my 100-species plans, but still, I left the ski area with 96 species. Could I really get four more species before the month ran out? Did I want to? No, I decided. I didn’t need to drive around burning up gas just trying to break a silly record. However, the Universe seemed to have other plans.

Portrait of a Canada Jay. See them while you can. Canada has announced that it will no longer allow these birds to be in the US if President Trump does indeed impose tariffs on our northern neighbor.

The afternoon of January 29th, I was again walking Lola in the neighborhood when I saw two more birds I needed for the month and year: Hairy Woodpecker and Cedar Waxwing, both of which I thought I’d already seen! Then, a Greater White-fronted Goose was sighted out beyond the Missoula Airport. I had never seen one of these birds in Montana, and it was a rare opportunity to do so, so on January 31st, I loaded my spotting scope and camera into the car and headed out to the site. My January and Year lists now stood at 98 species.

Long-story short: I did not find the Greater White-fronted Goose among the Canada Geese that were out there. As I was watching other CAGOs fly in, however, I was stunned to see a white goose flying with them! Stupidly, I did not try to gauge the size of this surprising arrival. If it were a bit larger it would be a Snow Goose; a bit smaller, Ross’s Goose. Either one would get me to 99 species—but not if I couldn’t identify it! Sighing and simply putting down “white goose” on my list, I resigned myself to not breaking that magical 100 number.

Since I was out there, however, I decided to swing by Council Grove State Park for a look around. The number of birds out there in the dead of winter surprised me. I was delighted to hear a Belted Kingfisher and spot Green-winged Teals and a Great Blue Heron. Then, two Killdeer flew by. As I was following a trail back around to the parking lot, however, I espied a small, soft lump on a branch out of the corner of my eye. “No way,” I muttered, and trained my new binoculars on it. It was another Northern Pygmy-Owl—the first I’d ever found all on my own. Even though it wouldn’t help with my goal of 100 birds, I was totally psyched by this find and spent ten minutes watching it before it winged away at hyper-speed.

Even though it didn’t help me with my 100-bird goal, seeing this Northern Pygmy-Owl was an awesome way to finish out an awesome January of birding.

So, no 100 birds. No century mark.

Or so I thought.

That evening, when I happened to glance at my bird list for the month, I was surprised to see that it stood not at 98 species as I expected, but at 99! The Killdeer I saw at Council Grove, it turned out, were also a new species for me for 2025! And then, several other birders confirmed that the white goose that I saw was indeed a Snow Goose! Ka-ching!

I’ll admit that getting to 100 wasn’t pretty, but like I said, the Universe seemed to want me to get there and, well, I’ll take it. It just shows you that a lot of great things can happen in birding—even setting silly records!

Partial FSB Reveal: We won’t be posting near the end of February and early March, but if all goes as planned, we should have some truly stunning posts for you then. Stay tuned!

Birding for Boomers

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I have always envied people who took up birding when young. There are just so many advantages to getting started as a youth, from having a better brain to learn with to having better ears to hear and discern the world’s vast array of birdsong. The biggest advantage? You get to spend more of your life birding! Alas, it’s a fact that most of us take up birding later in life, when one or more of our sensory systems are shot—not to mention our knees, hips, shoulders, or (you choose). Braden and I are perfect examples of this contrast. Already an outstanding birder, Braden has a full life ahead of him to see, learn, and enjoy birds. As a Baby Boomer I’m in a different boat. Though Braden and I began birding at the same time, my hearing was already well on its way to taking a dramatic crash so that even with hearing aids, I now cannot hear a lot of bird vocalizations. Most important, I just won’t have as many years to enjoy observing and learning about birds.

I was thinking about this a couple of years ago, and especially about how many fellow Boomers are in the exact same situation I am in. At the same time, I also pondered how much joy and pleasure birding has given me, even in the “short” span of a decade! That’s when the thought occurred to me: I should write a book! I am happy to share with you that that book is now a reality. It’s called Birding for Boomers—and Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World’s Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity.

More than a decade in the making (sort of), my newest adult book, BIRDING FOR BOOMERS, is AVAILABLE NOW! Order it by clicking on the cover above!

As its subtitle implies, this is not just a book for Baby Boomers. However, the phrase “Birding for Boomers” proved so irresistible that the publisher and I decided to stick with it for the main title. What the book really is, however, is a comprehensive guide for anyone interested in taking up one of the best activities on the planet!

In Birding for Boomers, I try to cover every topic that a beginning birder might need to know—including how not to die while birding!

After briefly—and humorously—sharing my own birding history, complete with its rewards and frustrations, Birding for Boomers launches into chapters that deal with almost every conceivable aspect of birding. I talk about birding equipment, field guides, and apps. In Chapter 6, I tackle the often-daunting process of learning to identify birds, complete with strategies for what to look and listen for. Subsequent chapters discuss bird feeders, birding “action wear,” safety, and which kinds of birds to look for in different habitats.

Whether we are a newly-hatched youth or a Boomer like myself, all of us face our own challenges when it comes to pursuing birds, and from the very beginning, I convey the message that no matter who you are, you’re not alone. Several chapters focus on hearing, eyesight, and physical limitations and how to accommodate them. Not all challenges are physical, however, and I discuss “birding while Black” and other issues that a typical heterosexual male white birder might not ever have to deal with. The basic message? Birding is an activity that can and should be enjoyed by everyone no matter who you are or where you come from.

My own hearing issues inspired me to pay special attention to the kinds of special challenges many birders face, both physical and situational.

Part VI, “The Advanced Birding Arsenal,” provides guidance for identifying particularly tough groups of birds—think sparrows, gulls, shorebirds, and flycatchers. It also delves into getting started on bird photography, or “how to spend your retirement savings.” It explains how to use eBird, by far the most useful birding app ever invented, and discusses uber-fun birding challenges such as doing a Big Year and participating in Christmas bird counts.

In “Boomers” I devote several chapters to finding the best places to bird—something Braden and I have written about frequently in FatherSonBirding.

I have to say that my favorite chapters discuss where to go birding. I begin by sharing tips for finding local birds right in your neighborhood, but then broaden that discussion to exploring some of America’s greatest birding destinations. I include tips for birding while on family vacations and how to study up on “foreign birds” ahead of time.

Perhaps the most important parts of the book detail what we can all do to help birds—including turning your yard, if you have one, into birding habitat. What are you waiting for?

The most important chapters are the last because here, I discuss the precarious state of many of the world’s bird species and what we can do about it. That includes supporting bird conservation groups, reducing our energy footprints, keeping cats indoors (see our post “Birding Brooklyn!”), and voting for politicians that support bird-friendly environmental policies. Those of us fortunate enough to own a house with a yard have the awesome opportunities to creating bird-friendly habitats. I myself did this when we moved into our current house (see post “Turning Useless Lawn into Vital Habitat”). Instead of filling up our plot with pointless lawn, I planted dozens of native plants that support birds. Honestly, this has been one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done. Every year, chickadees, wrens, and/or Song Sparrows nest in our yard, and many other species visit to find fruits, nuts, and insects to eat.

Newly-fledged chickadees in our front yard are a testament that creating habitat pays bird dividends!

Birding for Boomers distills almost everything I’ve learned in my decade of intensive birding and writing about birds. I also reached out to dozens of other excellent birders—and even conducted some online polls—to augment my own knowledge and experience. I think you’ll enjoy the book’s entertaining, fast-paced style and know that I can count on you to buy dozens of copies for yourself, your family, and friends. After all, there aren’t many other hobbies that bring so much joy to the world. What have you got to lose?

You can order Birding for Boomers this very instant from your local independent bookstore. You can also order it directly from Mountaineers Books, Amazon, and other outlets.

Follow this Cerulean Warbler’s example and order a stack of “Boomers” for your friends and family! Click here!

Montana County Sweep: Our Final Eastern Montana Odyssey Post

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Just so you don’t get lost in the narrative below, be sure you catch up with our last post—or, better yet, begin with the first post in this series!

We made our way out of the Ekalaka Hills along a different road than the one we came in on—and are so glad that we did! This route paralleled the top of a dramatic rim that dropped hundreds of feet to the plains below. As we drove, we experienced a wealth of warblers, nuthatches, Mountain Bluebirds, wrens, and other songbirds. I wasn’t quite satisfied with our view, though, so I told Braden, “Pull over. I want to walk to the edge.”

I will never get tired of watching and photographing Lark Sparrows, but this one along the Ekalaka Hills rim was especially cooperative!

Even as I approached the rim, I could see White-throated Swifts and Violet-green Swallows working the cliffs, and once we got there we experienced breathtaking views, perhaps all the way to South Dakota . Then I saw the bird I especially had been hoping for. “Braden!” I called. “Prairie Falcon!”

The cliffs on the south side of the Ekalaka Hills gave us our best-ever experience watching Prairie Falcons hunting.

This was a bird we had wanted to see the entire trip, but never dreamed of seeing in such dramatic circumstances. Braden hurried over to join me and we watched as this powerful, brown-backed bird deftly cut through the skies in front of us. “Wait. There’s a second one,” I said. “You’re right,” Braden exclaimed.

We spent a full ten or fifteen minutes enjoying the prowess of these magnificent hunters, and it made both of us feel good to know that the pair was undoubtedly nesting in a perfect place for them. Alas, we still had some serious goals ahead of us that day, so we reluctantly said goodbye and continued on our way.

Braden watching the Prairie Falcons performing their acrobatic flights along the Ekalaka Hills rim.

As mentioned in our last few posts, we began our trip needing to bird seven Montana counties to totally fill in our Montana eBird map. In the past week we had knocked off Daniels, Prairie, Wibaux, Fallon, and Carter Counties (see our last post, “Adventures in Ekalaka”). Today we faced the final two: Powder and Treasure Counties. The first proved easy. Driving twenty or so miles south of the Ekalaka Hills, we cut SW along a well-maintained dirt road to Hwy 212 and then turned NW. Eight miles later, we crossed into Powder River County, and immediately began picking up Mourning Doves, Eastern and Western Kingbirds, meadowlarks, and other “roadside attractions.” To meet our ten-species minimum, however, we stopped at a small riverside fishing access in Broadus. There, we collected 13 species including Lark Sparrows, Lazuli Buntings, Yellow Warblers, and yet another Red-headed Woodpecker! Continuing on toward Miles City, we left Powder River County with a total of 21 species. Not bad for just passing through!

By the time we reached Miles City, our trip had taken us almost 2,000 miles, and I guess a collective fatigue had caught up with us. “Do you mind if we just find a coffee shop and chill out for a while?” I asked Braden. He was totally agreeable, so we spent an hour or so relaxing in a City Brew I’d frequented while teaching a writing workshop there several years before. It was just what we both needed. More important, it prepared us for our last lifetime Montana county!

We did it! Our very last county we birded in Montana. And it only took us 11 years!

To reach Treasure County, we tooled down I-94 to the town of Forsyth, and then paralleled the Yellowstone River, driving west. About fifteen minutes later, we reached a sign marking the county line! We, of course, got out to immortalize the moment with our phone cameras, but even posing next to the sign we could hear and see Red-winged Blackbirds, a Western Meadowlark, and four or five other birds. We continued driving until we encountered a likely dirt road leading off to the north. We intended to try to reach the Yellowstone River, but found a promising thicket right before the road crossed some railroad tracks. “Let’s stop here,” I said.

Immediately, we were rewarded with a Lazuli Bunting, American Goldfinch, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat and other birds. The stars? A pair of American Redstarts that landed right in front of us, posing beautifully. Unlike with the Plumbeous Vireo (see our last post), I was prepared this time and took what may be my best American Redstart photos ever! Braden and I delighted in watching these birds for more than a minute before they flitted off into the thicket. But one more Treasure County surprise lay in wait.

One of our best looks ever at American Redstarts, this warbler was our reward for completing our mission to bird every Montana county!

Driving a bit farther, looking for a place to turn around, we headed left down a dirt road. “Uh, this looks like a driveway to that farm over there,” I said, but right then we both saw it—yet another Red-headed Woodpecker! (See our last post.)

I, of course, climbed out to try to get a decent photo since none of the other RHWOs had cooperated on the trip. This one, fortunately, did—more or less—peaking out behind a telephone pole. It was a great way not only to wrap up our Treasure County list (21 species total), but to punctuate the completion of our goal of birding every county in the vastness of Montana.

This Red-headed Woodpecker both surprised and delighted us when we pulled over to pad our Treasure County list—our last Montana county to fill in our eBird map!

Our Eastern Montana adventure was far from over. It would take us on a wonderful adventure to a private ranch, back to perhaps my favorite Montana place to bird (see our post Bear Canyon—Montana’s “Tropical Birding” Paradise), and above ten thousand feet to witness the enchanting lives of Black Rosy-finches. Rather than blog about these last adventures, though, I’ve decided to write a book, so you’ll just have to be patient. Braden and I hope that you’ve enjoyed these posts, however, and rest assured, we have enjoyed sharing them with you. Please be sure to share, and if you’d like to support FatherSonBirding, consider purchasing new copies of some of Sneed’s books. Speaking of that, his long-awaited new adult book, Birding for Boomers, is now available for pre-order. Don’t be shy. Click on the cover below now!

Trip Stats:

Total Species Observed: 203 (from a goal of 185)

Total eBird checklists: 209

New Montana Life Birds: 5 + 1 (Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Broad-winged Hawk, Least Tern, Eastern Bluebird, Black Rosy-Finch plus—for Braden—Piping Plover)

Miles Driven: 2,482

Our eBird Trip Report: https://ebird.org/tripreport/246744

More than a decade in the making (sort of), my newest adult book, BIRDING FOR BOOMERS, will be available on September 1st—but you can order it now by clicking on the cover above!

Eastern Montana Odyssey 2024: Big Surprise on the way to Plentywood

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Welcome to Part 3 of our 2024 Eastern Montana Odyssey! In this installment, we recount our adventures traveling from Fort Peck to Plentywood, including a wonderful grassland birding site and a big raptor surprise as we start trying to knock off our last seven birding counties in Montana. Enjoy, and don’t be shy about sharing!

After breaking camp at Fort Peck (see our last post), Braden and I continued onto the next stage of our epic eastern Montana safari. We had several goals for the day, including birding one of the remaining seven counties we had yet to fill in on our eBird maps. Unfortunately, gusty 20-40 mph winds continued, so we knew we needed to stay flexible. After grabbing breakfast at the French restaurant Le McDaniels in Glasgow, we headed north to our first stop, Kerr Road, south of Opheim, Montana. Last spring, FWP biologist Heather Harris (see my brand new Montana Outdoors article “12 Little Brown Grassland Birds Every Montanan Should (Kinda) Know” in the July/August 2024 issue) took me and my buddy Scott Callow on a delightful visit to Kerr in search of grassland birds, and I was eager to show Braden the area as well.

If this shot of me posing near the beginning of Kerr Road doesn’t get me a modeling contract, I don’t know what will. Can you shout, “ROCKIN’ IT!”?

Thanks to progressive grazing and conservation policies, much of the land alongside the road has been kept in grass, making it great habitat for grassland birds. Despite the wind, we spotted Upland Sandpipers, Willets, and at a spot called Ward’s Dam, Wilson’s Phalaropes. We also saw or heard a full complement of smaller grassland birds including 17 Chestnut-collared Longspurs, Lark Buntings, a Baird’s Sparrow, and what would turn out to be our only Thick-billed Longspurs of the entire trip! All told, we saw forty species, but our total would have undoubtedly been higher without the howling gusts from up north.

Kerr Road offered great looks at what would be our only Thick-billed (formerly McCown’s) Longspurs of the trip. Braden and I just love the interesting colorations on these birds. In Montana they are much less common than the equally impressive Chestnut-collared Longspurs.

Our Kerr Road Checklist.

The grass along Kerr Road offers wonderful habitat for Upland Sandpipers and, sure enough, we saw three of them on our relatively brief excursion.

Our next destination? Daniels County, the first of the final seven counties Braden and I needed to bird to fill in our lifetime Montana county birding map profiles. Humorously, we first stopped to bird in the small town of Richland—only to discover that it sat not in Daniels County, but in Valley County, a county in which we already had a long history of birding! Our blunder turned out to be a good thing, though, because it forced us to stop for a picnic in Roseland Park in Scobey—yielding one of the biggest surprises of the trip. As soon as we parked on the street next to the park, Braden said, “Look over there!” I trained my binoculars on a large raptor sitting in a tree—a raptor that turned out to be a Broad-winged Hawk!

Our second Montana Broad-winged Hawk in three days couldn’t have been more cooperative, perched only yards from where we had chosen to picnic.

A few BWHAs come through Montana every year, but you usually see them hundreds of feet high as they migrate across the state. In fact, Braden and I had collected our first Montana Broad-winged only three days before while birding Camp Creek Campground near Zortman. And yet, here was another, sitting right in front of us! We were both totally astonished and it put us in great moods to eat our turkey-and-cheese sandwiches and do a little birding on nearby streets. We ended up with 14 species for our first Daniels County list, including Swainson’s Thrush, Warbling Vireo, and three Yellow Warblers. Not bad for a (sort of) accidental stop!

Canvasbacks put on a show in several places on our trip, including Ward’s Dam. Can you spot the Blue-winged Teal and American Wigeon flying among them?

From Scobey, we bee-lined for Plentywood, a known hotspot for rare migratory birds that clip Montana’s northeastern corner on their way north. Alas, for various reasons we were missing the peak migration opportunity to find rare eastern warblers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and other songbirds. Not only that, but warm, howling winds continued, squashing our plans to camp that night. Instead, we checked into a local motel and birded two local hotspots, Harry de Silva Park and Bolster Dam Campground.

A tiny roadside marsh along Kerr Road afforded us the trip’s best opportunity to observe a Blue-winged Teal.

Not unexpectedly, results were disappointing. The highlights were spotting several Purple Martins and a nice kettle of Turkey Vultures. To make matters worse, downed power lines had knocked out electricity to most of the town’s restaurants, forcing us to eat at Dairy Queen. It had been several decades since I’d eaten at a DQ, and I have to admit it wasn’t the worst meal in the world. Unfortunately, our food situation was destined to worsen as, the next day, we prepared to head to Montana’s Birding Mecca, Westby.

Make sure you don’t miss the next installment of our epic eastern Montana adventure by subscribing to FSB now. Simply scroll down on the right and fill out the “Subscribe Now” box that you find there!

Untangling Birdsong with Merlin’s Sound ID

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Braden and I write FatherSonBirding in the hopes of sharing the wonders of birds and birding, and the urgency to protect them. We do not accept advertising or donations, but if you’d like to support our work, please consider buying *NEW* copies of some of Sneed’s books—First-Time Japan, for instance, or my picture book for younger readers, Birds of Every Color. We appreciate your interest and hope you will keep reading!

The birds are back! Well, at least a lot of them. Last weekend, our dog Lola and I hiked our favorite four-mile loop from our house up to a ridge called the Mount Jumbo Saddle and then back down past what has become my favorite “bird thicket” in Missoula. We first began hiking this route when I was training to take Braden’s scouting troop to Philmont Scout Camp in 2019. Honestly, Lola isn’t crazy about the route since she hates loud noises and we often hear guns firing from a range a couple of miles away. I keep making her do it, though, because I’ve discovered that it’s a great way to keep up with the neighborhood bird community, especially in spring. The past couple of years, I’ve tried to do this route on a regular basis, carefully recording new arrivals and learning more about their migration patterns.

The past couple of years, Lola and I have regularly hiked up to Mount Jumbo Saddle and back to check in on which birds are currently in residence. Lola likes the route except for the gunshots she hears from east Missoula!

Songbird migration builds slowly here in Montana. This year in late March, I noted the first Western Meadowlarks, Western Bluebirds, and Spotted Towhees on the route—but four weeks later, April 21, not much had changed. Two weeks after that—yesterday—the dam broke. I set off up the hill hoping to see perhaps the year’s first Vesper Sparrows, but quickly discovered that new arrivals were spouting off everywhere I turned. It began halfway up Jumbo Saddle when I heard a song that reminded me of a Western Meadowlark and I guessed that it was my season’s first Vesper Sparrow. The problem? I didn’t know for sure—a situation faced by millions of birders who have not, or cannot, learn more than a few bird vocalizations.

In our neck of the woods, Spotted Towhees are among the earliest spring songbird migrants. Fortunately, their weird “bouncing ball” rattle is easy to pick out.

What to do?

In the past couple of years, I have developed a strategy for dealing with these situations—one that might help you, too. It used to be that when you heard a song or call that you couldn’t identify, one’s options were limited. You could just guess, and play various bird calls on your app, hoping to land on the right one. You could record the call and play it back to an expert. More often, you’d try to follow the song and get a visual on the bird to see what it was. Unfortunately, all of these methods are slow and cumbersome, and in spring, well, there are just too many vocalizations to keep up with.

And then along came Merlin’s Sound ID feature.

Sound ID is (almost) every birder’s dream. You simply tap a button on the Merlin phone app and it begins recording and identifying the songs and calls around you in real time. The app is not infallible. You have to be fairly close to birds for it to pick up and identify them, and the app has difficulty handling background noises such as wind, rushing streams, and cars roaring by on a freeway. The app also makes mistakes. Starlings, mockingbirds, and Steller’s Jays can fool it with their imitations of other birds. If the app only picks up part of a call, it sometimes can mistake one bird for another. The bottom line: you should never use the app alone to identify a bird.

So how do you make proper use of it? I employ it in two ways.

Strategy One: Confirmation

The first is to confirm a song or call that I may be somewhat familiar with—but am not 100% sure about. The putative Vesper Sparrow in the second paragraph is a perfect example. In past years, I had learned that a Vesper Sparrow kind of sounds like the call of a Western Meadowlark—but a bit simpler and cruder. When I heard a “somewhat meadowlark” call near Mount Jumbo Saddle, I immediately thought “Vesper Sparrow” but couldn’t be sure, so I started Sound ID. Sure enough, the song lit up as Vesper Sparrow. Other things made me confident about this ID, too. The timing was right from previous years. Most important, I was standing in perfect Vesper Sparrow habitat—open meadows with tall grass and scattered perching shrubs.

The arrival of Vesper Sparrows is a cause célèbre for Braden and me. I always need to confirm its meadowlark-like song, however.

As my hike continued, in fact, I used Sound ID to confirm several other birds in this way, including Steller’s Jay and the year’s first Chipping Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Things were about to get more challenging, however.

Strategy Two: Possible Presence

Not long after hearing my first (and second, third, and fourth) Vesper Sparrow, I reached a nice brushy area where Braden and I have heard Orange-crowned Warblers in previous years. Unfortunately for me, I have a very difficult time distinguishing one warbler song from another. I usually recognize Yellow-rumped Warblers when they first show up, but as other species arrive they plunge me into, in the words of Sir Topham Hatt, “confusion and delay.” This morning, I could hear what sounded like warblers—but I didn’t know which ones.

Again, Sound ID comes in very useful in these situations because it can give you an idea of what to look for. I started a new recording and the app failed to come up with any Orange-crowned Warblers. It did, however, identify Yellow-rumped, Yellow, and most exciting, Nashville Warblers! I did not log any of these on eBird, however—not right away. Because I am not good with warbler songs, I needed to confirm these in at least one or two other ways.

Once the Orange-crowned Warblers arrive, I know I’m in for a real challenge to start distinguishing different warblers by song. That’s when I lean heavily on Sound ID.

One is to compare what you are hearing with known recordings on other apps. If what you are hearing is identical to vocalizations in the Merlin sound library or on the Sibley app, depending on your experience, I feel confident that you can go ahead and record the bird—again keeping in mind the caveat that some birds imitate others.

Still, I only do this when I am really sure the two songs are the same—understanding that bird songs from the same species can vary tremendously. If I have any doubts, I wait to log a bird on eBird until I have confirmed it with a visual sighting or by running it past an expert. With this technique, Sound ID isn’t cinching the identification for me, but it is helping me a lot by giving me a better idea of what to look for.

This morning, however, I could not find any of the three warblers in the first thicket, so Lola and I kept hiking. Ten minutes later, I spotted a Yellow-rumped Warbler in a tree—and recorded it—but it was the Nashville Warbler I was really after.

Lincoln’s Sparrows are hands-down one of my and Braden’s favorite songbirds. Unlike the warblers, they also seem kind of curious and make themselves for visible to the eager birder.

Eventually, I came to another thicket, and here I was thrilled to see my first Lincoln’s Sparrow of the year. Just as enticing, I also was hearing warbler sounds all around me so I turned on Sound ID once again. This time, Orange-crowned and Nashville songs started lighting up Sound ID like a pinball machine. Thanks to the app, I was quickly able to distinguish the two species by ear, and I confirmed these by playing other recordings on the Merlin library. Soon after, I actually saw the birds for myself. Yes! I thought, and finally logged them onto eBird.

Sound ID has helped me find many more Nashville Warblers than when Braden and I first started birding ten years ago.

All together, Lola and I saw eight new first-of-year species on our hike. For several of them, Sound ID not only helped me identify them, it alerted me to look for them in the first place. I want to emphasize, however, that Sound ID is not a substitute for putting in the hours to learn and identify birds yourself. Recently, Cornell has issued friendly cautions not to rely on it as your sole basis for identification. Instead, I consider Sound ID a wonderful “helper tool” that can especially assist beginning birders, as well as more experienced birders like myself who just find it difficult to learn vocalizations. And did I mention the Merlin app (with Sound ID) is free? Cornell Lab, the app’s developer, has generously made it available to anyone who wants it. Even better for our international readers, Cornell Lab is rapidly expanding what the app can identify to countries around the globe. All you need is a phone. Learn more at https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/.

Checklist 1: https://ebird.org/checklist/S172160962

Checklist 2: https://ebird.org/checklist/S172176329