BIRD WATCHING TECHNIQUE

When going for birding, the advise is to take field guides, a good binoculars, a note book and a pen or pencil.  Some senior members of the group regret that most people don't carry all the above items and instead carry a camera.

Whether all the listed items are to be carried or a camera will do? A systematic study of birds started only after the British got involved into and they were rulers and basically hunters than bird watchers. Abundant numbers of specimen were available for them to physically see and classify, make notes etc..  Even Dr. Salim Ali has stated that he has used mist nets and has shot birds for physical examination. Even after the cameras were put into use, those were with films and costly and films can not be just wasted. The results were known only after processing in the studio labs. So the birders were left to imagination till such time a good photograph was made.

After development of digital technology in cameras, shooting with cameras has become very easy with easy shoot modes, practically no cost for the photos and also the latest cameras are easy to carry and are having high zoom that they can reach out a small bird sitting at a very long distance easily.

With more amateurs in the field, there are more number of people with cameras and photos are taken in different angles and within short time they are  shared in the circle to confirm the identity of the bird.

Internet is handy and there is no difficulty in identifying a particular species when you have a photo of the bird.

While looking through a binocular is enjoyable, when it comes to identification of new species and is not clearly visible, some record shots are carried and circulated. The experts in the field can always identify a bird from the silhouettes, place etc.   

Further, photographs have a record of date and time and latest cameras are with GPRS which record places also and there is no better record than this.

The cameras are of immense use as now one can not catch a bird physically due to strict Wild Act Laws, lower population and rarity of the birds apart from accessibility for a good view of the bird. Heavy zoom cameras help to take good photographs in any number with immediate screen view facility and the picture are recorded with places, date etc. They form good record and when kept systematically easy to access in the computers and to pass on.