Birdwatching is an engaging and rewarding past time but it can be intimidating to know where to begin. This page will hopefully help anyone who wishes to get into the hobby!
Where can I see birds?
The best place to start birdwatching is in your own home. Put up some bird feeders in your back garden or on your balcony and fill them with birdseed: peanuts, sunflower hearts, nyjer seeds, etc. With enough time and patience, you’ll begin to see some visitors! Different food in different seasons will attract different species. Other great beginner spots are your nearest park, riverbank or seaside locations. Once you start looking for birds you will find them everywhere.
How can I identify birds?
The best thing for new birdwatchers is a good field guide or ID book. We recommend The Birds of Ireland – A Field Guide by Jim Wilson. It features pictures and descriptions of over 260 of the most commonly seen bird species in Ireland and is compact enough to carry around with you wherever you go. It can be purchased at the BirdWatch Ireland store or at any major Irish bookseller.
A great free alternative is Merlin, available for Apple and Android devices. Created and maintained by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this app acts as a digital field guide with photo identification tools. Another great application is BirdNET, which uses machine learning to identify birds based on your recordings of their calls. Note that this app is not specific to Irish species only and can be inaccurate sometimes, so I would take the results with a grain of salt.
What else do I need?
Aside from perhaps a decent pair of binoculars and some good walking shoes, you have more than enough to take your first steps into birdwatching.
What do we use when taking photos?
I’ve had a few cameras over the years, and because I’ve been birdwatching for a while now, our photos are taken with a number of different cameras & lenses.
- Nikon COOLPIX L830: From 2018/2019, when I was first getting into birdwatching I was using a camera we had in the house – the old “family camera”. This is a nice digital bridge camera (point & shoot, no detachable lenses) from 2014 with a 34x optical zoom, which is handy for getting up close to faraway birds. Nowadays you can pick up this same camera for €100 online, though you can likely find a more modern camera with better tech for the same price.
- Nikon COOLPIX P900: In 2022, this was the first camera I bought myself, another bridge camera but instead this has a 83x optical zoom (for camera nerds, that’s equivalent to a 2000mm lens). This extra reach is great and this is still a really great camera that can “do it all” in one package.
- Canon EOS R10: I bough my first interchangeable lens camera in 2024, primarily shooting with the RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM lens. When my arms are feeling up to the task, I also have the extreme telephoto RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM. I’m still learning the ropes and I’ve sacrificed some reach from the above camera here but so far I’m enjoying the aspect of learning to work with a new system!
Birdwatching doesn’t have to be about capturing the most perfect photo with a big expensive lens though, and I know my photos are far from perfect – at the end of the day, you really don’t need any gear at all. Your eyes and ears are the best tools you have.
Get out there and happy birding!
The Irish Bird Blog 