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Patti Galli styles hair by day, but on the weekends, you’ll find the 62-year-old in parks and forests across Colorado—a pair of binoculars around her neck and a notepad in her jacket pocket. As our feathered friends begin returning to their high-elevation homes, we asked the Audubon Society master birder to share her tips for birdwatching beginners.
1. Start by studying robins. They’re average in size for birds, so if you know how big they are, you can use robins as a barometer for identifying other species. No way something smaller than our red-feathered friend is gonna be, for example, a hawk.
2. Buy a pair of binoculars (Standard Issue Nocs are small, come in fun colors, and cost $100) and a field guide specific to local birds. You can snag the latter from the Denver Audubon Kingery Nature Center at Chatfield State Park or at the Front Range Birding Company’s Littleton or Boulder locations.
3. You don’t need an expensive camera to score a cool portrait. “Your phone does really well,” Galli says. Just remember that capturing quality photos at a distance is difficult, even with today’s technology. When you get a good image, examine it. Ducks, especially, have lots of variants and markings that can be hard to see in the field.
4. Mark your calendar for Hawk Watch at Jefferson County’s Dinosaur Ridge, which begins in early March and lasts until mid-May (peak migration is usually in April). Volunteers scan the sky daily alongside a designated counter, who tallies the raptors and helps identify them.
5. Every bird has a story. Consider the distances traveled, hardships endured, and adjustments made to get to that tree in your yard. “Maybe a bird’s habitat has changed because of construction…or there’s no more water in a place they used to visit,” Galli says. “For me, it’s not just looking at a pretty bird. There’s a real education and learning behind this.”
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