Sometimes you can be more successful birdwatching with your ears than your eyes. Many birds are very shy about visiting a feeder or birdbath, but if you’re familiar with the sounds they make, it’s easier to spot them. Other birds spend their time way up in the tree tops and unless you are looking up or listening for their calls, you won’t even know they are there.
I’ve only seen a Gray Catbird in my yard a few times, but I hear their distinctive “meow” call quite a bit in summer.
Eastern Towhees are considered somewhat elusive so I was excited to see one on my birdfeeder recently. If I’d been paying attention to the “drink your teeeeea” call I’d heard a day earlier, I would’ve been on the lookout sooner. Fortunately, this one was brave enough to pose for some photos.
I lived here years before I noticed that Scarlet Tanagers visit my backyard every spring. They sit in the very top of the oak trees and sing their robin-like call. When I hear that song for the first time each April, I drop everything and run outside to search the trees for the beautiful, flame-red birds. I would wager a guess that I have neighbors who’ve lived here for more than 20 years and still have no idea that all they need to do to see such a beautiful creature is to look up.
To become more familiar with the birds that visit your neighborhood, listen to CDs of bird songs, download them from the internet or visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s online Bird Guide. They have audio clips of bird songs and many videos of bird behaviors and habits that will make you an expert in no time.