People living in cities are faced with concrete, steel forests, traffic, monotonous and boring jobs all day long, and have no connection with the wildlife that lives and breathes.
Humans are not the only ones on earth, there are so many wonderful creatures living around us.
Getting to know their life forms, understanding their survival behaviour, and watching them forage for food, fight and raise their offspring. This appreciation of one life for another, without any utilitarianism, is the perspective that is most lacking in an increasingly indifferent society.
As an enthusiast interested in birdwatching, how does one get started？
Keep your ears open and your eyes open
The first thing you need to do when birdwatching is to be quiet and focused, activating your sensory nerves as much as possible, paying particular attention to the figures that pass in your field of vision and extracting the birds' calls from the environment.
Next, use your eye to circle an approximate field of vision by following the figures and calls of the birds, then use binoculars to look for and observe and memorise the features of each part of the bird; finally, use the features you have memorised to compare with the illustrations Identify the bird by comparing it to the catalogue.
If possible, you can have a DSLR camera to take photographs of the birds and identify them against the catalogue. How are the features recorded? There are three main areas of identification: Body size, plumage colour, and typical identification features.
Inexperienced birdwatchers will be overwhelmed at first and often fail to find the bird, or if they do find it, they will not be able to tell the difference, so it is best to have experienced birdwatchers around to guide you.
So go out and spend time with experienced birdwatchers, watch more birds, take more notes, memorize the identification features of various birds against the illustrations and get the visual identification features and sounds of birds in your head.
Migration times are not to be missed
If you observe birds at times when they are active, you can get twice as much out of them. Most birds are active around sunrise. According to many years of birdwatching experience, the time to watch birds varies from season to season.
In spring, you can start at 7:00 am and birds can be active until around 11:00 am; in summer, it is recommended to start at 6:00 am, usually until 10:00 am, after which birds become less active; in autumn, the same time as in spring; in winter, you can start at 8:00 am and birds can be active until noon.
Different species can be viewed at different times of the year. In Beijing, for example, birds that can be seen all year round are called "resident birds".
Birds that only migrate in late spring, breed in Beijing in summer, and leave in late summer and early autumn are called "summer migratory birds"
Birds that only migrate in late autumn and overwinter in Beijing are called "winter migratory birds".
Birds that only come in late autumn and overwinter in Beijing are called "wintering birds", while birds that only pass through Beijing during the migration season (usually spring and autumn) are called migratory birds or passerines.
