Becoming a Birdie

I was surprised that I didn't become interested in bird identification earlier, considering that the last Chinese character in my name actually is some kind of a bird. Until this morning, while driving around a curved road I noticed a small black-and-white bird with a patch of red on its head. It landed on the side of a tree, and started pecking. Instinct told me that it might be a woodpecker, but what woodpecker? And so small?

Then I think about my friends, A, V, and D, who are all enthusiastic bird lovers. Their ability in identifying birds are just beyond me. True, they must have books and manuals and iPhone apps to help them, but they are really devoted. V, on our trip to Peru, took 234 pictures of birds, and identified a large majority of them; I, on the contrary, probably got pictures of 5 birds, and identified none. D had rented a 400mm super telephoto lens and used two laptops to trigger his camera, which was aimed at his bird feeder, for picture-taking every 2 minutes for the length of 4 hours or so to catch as many birds as he could. That sounded very geeky to me, yet A had an additional suggestion for D, that he should install a motion sensor rather than wasting his camera battery. Well, what can I say? These are my scientist friends!

I knew I could always go to A for bird identification help. But the thing is, usually I don't see those birds clearly, so I can't describe them accurately. That is because my eye sight is bad (though A and D wear glasses, too). I think that is why I am not aware of the presence of birds around me. They simply fly away so fast that I can't even have a good look at them. But today, I saw that bird quite up close and clearly.

Before I went to A for help, I saw that National Geographic had a new Backyard Bird Identifier. It is just for people like me! I successfully identified my birdie as a Downy Woodpecker. It is interesting to know that it is quite widespread, though I had not noticed it before.

I think today is the turning point from which I will become more interested in birds.