Best few minutes on bird ID I have experienced

I take bird photos. My approach to to shoot first and ask questions later.

This is perhaps one of your best and most useful videos ever!! Thanks. I sometime see new birders looking at their phones and almost ignoring the bird.

you can tell when you're listening to someone who has studied a subject for quite a long time - Bob you're it! You have transformed my birding - thank you

Thanks Bob. That was really helpful. I'm going to look for those 4 field marks going forward.

Excellent strategy and advice!! I've just moved to Europe and feel like a brand new birder with all of the unfamiliar species. This advice will serve me well!

Hey you have to start somewhere. I birded by myself using that National Audubon photo book. Talk about taking a long time to learn a little bit but truth be told I had a lot of fun. I still recall the thrill of IDing my first bird , Tufted Titmouse. After 20 + years I took the plunge and started going out with the local bird club in the county I live in. Walking & listening to people who knew their stuff was such a pleasure and my I D skills grew in leaps and bounds. If I knew now what I didn`t know then would I change the way I did it....hard to say. I love being out in the forest by myself but I do also love being a better birder. As long as you are outdoors and learning from nature it`s all good...thanks

I prefer to take a picture and identify later

Wonderful and clear instruction on learning to "see" identifying field marks! Thank you Bob.

Great informative video! As always, thanks Bob! You have a unique way of communicating that mixes humor and knowledge. It’s a potent combination!

For people wanting to learn some more helpful warbler field marks, I'd recommend the Warbler Guide. 10/10 book, includes super helpful pictures and guides to their songs, field marks, and even has a whole section on identifying them by undertail coverts.

Great, practical advice, and well put together video. The idea of taking the book outdoors with me never even occurred to me because it feels cumbersome. I do rely a bit too much on Merlin to ID by sound, though, and as I'm learning calls better, I'm trying to use it less as an intermediate level birder.

Great tips!!! We truly enjoy your videos!!

Great teaching and excellent strategy!

Well, I don't know why the algoritm wanted me to be able to identify birds, I have never showed any interest in that direction. But now I'm a lot better at it than before, thanks for that!

Best way I've found is to make a picture for ID and then confirm it when I get home.

Another great video and advice. Thank you!

I just recently started taking birding seriously and going out specifically to bird. When I started trying to ID Thraupids (neotropical “tanagers”) in Peru, I made this mistake a lot. I managed to ID a honeycreeper (genus Cyanerpes) with this strategy, but unfortunately we have two species near the research station and I didn’t notice any of the features that would distinguish the two.

Bob: I learned a general indication of warblers in habitats from Paddy Cunningham who runs the Everglades Birding Festival. If a warbler has wing bars, generally, it will be medium to high in the canopy. If no wing bars, generally, medium to low. Always an exception to that general rule.

I love your channel, i love your personality and u seem like someone with real experience and u seem very trustworthy. Im glad the community of birders online is so wholesome, thank you!

Great video, Bob! Thanks!

The best way to identify a bird in my case , is to take a picture of the bird , then after the bird is gone , then go to the book and find the bird that matches your photo

This is very helpful technique, thank you!

Excellent video thank you

Thanks a lot. As a beginner, I felt overwhelmed by looking at the birds but thanks for your great tip of the field mark, I think I probably I still fell overwhelmed😅 when I couldn't recognize them. But I will look less at my Merlin app for guidelines. That is again for sharing.

Another great video! Thank you :-)

Really, really helpful video!!

You do a great job at simplifying birding. Thanks.

Bob's videos are the best

I used the wing bar, yellow throat, and breast streak trick to get my lifer palm warbler today! (Yes to all 3 options) Thanks Bob!

Excellent advice for a novice like me! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😎

super helpful

Also head color and throat color if not yellow.. step 2. Instead of just noting wing bars or breast streaks 'yes' or 'no', try to remember what they wing bars or breast streaks look like.

Peterson is still the best there is. He has an amazing facility to state the very precise consideration one needs to pin down the species. The very best way is to photograph the book and then ID later. I would miss much without my camera.

Sadly this doesn’t really work with European birds- our warblers especially the leaf warblers are almost identical- sometimes a photo or a sound recording is needed to ID them. Definitely works for finches though.

He’s got a pair of $2500 Swarovski binoculars. I’d say he has the best already, why the Zeiss?

Awesome! Enjoying all the migrants and have been noticing some of these in the field!

Bah! Take a picture and then look at the field marks in the picture.

thats a great and yet almost obvious tip especially for beginners. currently im brand new to bird watching, havent even gotten my first guide in physical print yet but i think this tip will help me out a lot, it was very helpful to be told what kind of field marks are useful to focus on :))

Field marks?!?! To quote another KZfaqr, famous like yourself, Whaaat!?! No waaaayyy, FFS. 🤣 Great info, great videos, thanks Bob. p.s. you deserve those Zeiss Victory 10x42s.