Throughout my whole life, birding has always kind of just been there, in the background.

I grew up on a farm in Bruce County, in rural mid-western Ontario, during the 1980s and 90s, and like many kids my age I was involved in Scouts, and that was the main source of my direct education about nature and the outdoors in general.

More indirectly however, was the Golden Guide to the Birds of North America, a field guide we had around the house. At this age I’d never heard the term “birding”. I did however think that “birdwatching” either conjured up images of nature documentaries where international filmmakers were trapsing through a South American jungle looking for some rare avian species to capture footage of, or, just about anyone spending their day staring out a window that overlooks a birdfeeder. I didn’t really know of anything in between those two examples.

The farm I lived on had many birds that I learned through my parents. There’s the obvious feeder species: House Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jays, American Goldfinch, Pine Siskin during some winters, and at that time, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks showed up regularly during winters (though these winter grosbeaks are quite a rare sight in the area now).

In the spring and summer, the songs of Mourning Doves, Eastern Meadowlarks, Bobolinks, and of course the wailing calls of the Killdeer were sounds that I just learned on my own — all these birds were quite overt with their vocalizations, and easy to observe without binoculars.

So, was I “birding” back then? I could identify some, but I didn’t necessarily seek them out — these species were present where I was already, I was just being curious.

I did however comb through the Golden Guide to read about various other bird species. I always thought, for example, Brown Creepers were very interesting birds, and always wanted to see one, but had no idea how I could find them. If only I had known, they were literally a short walk away. A woodlot within view of our house most certainly had them then, as it does today. Alas.

Fast forward to 2012, and there I am, out hiking and exploring the trails around the city of Hamilton, Ontario. There were many birds along the trail — I wasn’t seeking them out, they just, once again, were there.

This time however, I had a digital camera. Not a very good one by 2025 standards, but good enough to get images of birds that were actually identifiable. I found a flock of birds that I wasn’t sure of in the Dundas Valley, and they turned out to be Pine Siskin. It was the first time I had really taken the effort to find out what bird I was looking at, by creating documentation — specifically, what we birders call a “record photo”. Nothing fancy, just a photo good enough to identify the bird by.

And, that turned out to be one of my first actual “steps” into birding. Around the same time, there was also a mystery birdsong being belted out from our backyard that I was furrowing my brow in trying to discern and identify, but I’ll tell that story next time.

So what is a first step into birding? I might suggest that for me, it was to find a bird, of which I wasn’t sure of the species. I documented it by photo (thought it could have been audio, video, written discription, drawing, or memorization of its features). Then, I sought out the species identification. Note that I said “a” first step though. This happens to be what my first step was, yours may differ. As may your definition own of birding. Today there are many ways of being a birder.

To be a birder, one needs no more than the curiosity to learn more about birds — no specific skills or talents are necessary. So perhaps I really was a birder from childhood, and my 2012 experience was really just a reawakening.

How far one goes beyond just being curious about birds is up to one’s own preferences and interests, and may come to only define what kind of birder you are, not how good of a birder you are.

Background bird song: Brown Creeper

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