Learn the birds on your block before you learn the rare ones.

Getting started

You do not need binoculars to begin. Pigeons, sparrows, starlings and gulls are close and tolerant, and learning them well by eye teaches you the shape-and-behaviour habit that every later identification depends on. When you do buy a pair, 8×42 is the standard all-round choice and a compact 8×25 fits a coat pocket; more magnification than 8× is harder to hold steady.

Go out in the hour after sunrise. Songbirds are loudest and most active then, traffic is quiet, and the low light shows colour honestly. Late afternoon is the second-best window. Walk slowly, stop often, and let your ears lead — in a city you will hear far more birds than you see.

When you find one, resist the book. Watch first. Ask its size against something you know (sparrow, pigeon, crow), its overall shape, how it moves, what it is doing and where it is. Then pick two or three field marks — a wing bar, an eye ring, a coloured rump — before it flies. Only after that open a guide. Write down what you saw before you write down what you decided; the notes are what you learn from.

Ethical observation

The bird's welfare comes before your view or your photograph. If a bird stops feeding, stares at you, calls in alarm or moves away, you are too close; step back until it resumes what it was doing. Never chase a bird to make it fly, and never approach a nest — parents that are kept off eggs or chicks lose them to cold and predators, and your path to the nest shows crows and cats the way.

Do not play recorded songs or calls in a city. Playback pulls birds off territories they are defending on tight margins, and in parks the same individuals are hit by it dozens of times a day. Learn songs from recordings at home instead. Do not feed birds to bring them closer for photographs, and avoid bread at ponds: it fills ducks without nourishing them and fouls the water.

Be careful what you publish. Roosting owls, nesting raptors and any rare visitor can be overwhelmed by crowds within hours of a precise location being shared online. Share the park, not the tree. Stay on paths, keep dogs leashed near shorelines and long grass, keep groups small and respect private property.

Urban habitats

Parks, cemeteries and allotments. The richest ground in most cities: mature trees, shrub edges and unmown corners. Look where two habitats meet — a hedge beside a lawn, trees beside water. Expect thrushes on the grass, tits or chickadees in the canopy and woodpeckers on old trunks.

Water. Ponds, canals, rivers and harbours hold the biggest and most watchable birds: ducks, geese, gulls, cormorants and herons. Winter is best, when inland water freezes and birds gather on whatever stays open. Bridges give a raised, stable view.

Streets and street trees. Sparrows in hedges and café awnings, starlings on aerials, pigeons and doves on ledges. A single flowering or fruiting street tree can draw a dozen species in season; learn which trees on your route fruit and when.

Buildings and the sky above them. Tall buildings are cliffs. Peregrines nest on them, gulls nest on flat roofs, swifts and swallows breed in eaves. Scan the skyline at midday for raptors circling on warm air, and at dusk for swifts screaming around rooftops.

Waste ground, railway edges and vacant lots. Weedy, seedy and undisturbed: finches, buntings and sparrows in autumn and winter, often at the fence line rather than in the middle.