Probably one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a new birdwatcher, is to see a bird but not be able to view and identify the bird through the binoculars. It takes a little bit of practice in learning how to raise the binoculars and be looking at the bird immediately once they are raised.
When I first started birdwatching at age 14, I was using the family pair of binoculars, a set of 7 x 35 porro-prism style. They were my dad’s for who knows how long and had rigid eyecups (boy, did I hate those, they hurt putting against your face). I started my birding hobby by going to a local Audubon Center and doing backyard birdwatching. The backyard time was very beneficial since I could use the binoculars a lot and had plenty of time to identify the new birds that showed up in the yard or overhead. I didn’t take notes back then on how to use them, but I do recall the general progression in the ability to see the birds through the binoculars quickly. I’d like to share with you now some of those techniques.
The Ever Increasing Cone of Viewing
The first lesson is to be patient, but practice a lot. Being able to find a bird with binoculars can mean different things to different levels of birdwatchers. When you are starting out, you literally just want to be able to get the bird into the viewing portion of your binoculars and identify it. This may seem like a simple task, and in some situations it will be. The closer the bird, the larger it appears and the likelihood of not seeing it will decrease. As the distance between you and the bird increases, the smaller the bird is, but at the same time the viewing area that you are seeing is also increasing. Think of the viewing area from the binoculars to the area in front of you not as a cylinder, but as a cone (your eyes being at red narrow point in the cone below). As you increase the viewing distance, the cone diameter gets wider and you are viewing more horizontal and vertical distance (the dark green section). Insert a small bird into the picture and you can see why it gets difficult finding birds with binoculars. We can’t change how binoculars work, but we can mitigate some of the problems at the beginning so we can at least find the birds and have a chance to identify them.
Imagine yourself at the point of the red portion of this cone with your binoculars. As you look out to more distant objects, the width of your field of view increases, making the task of finding a bird harder.
Solution # 1: Picking the Right Set of Binoculars - Begin with Lower magnification
When looking for binoculars for birdwatching, there is a GREAT temptation to go for the gusto! Don’t. What do I mean by this? Well, we always think that more expensive is better, fancy features are better, or certain brands are better. While all of this could be true, but our goal is to identify birds. When starting out, keep it simple. One way to do this is to buy a pair of binoculars that are on the lower end of the magnification spectrum. We don’t want to go too low. Opera glasses are usually 4x magnification and would be perfect at the opera when you have good lighting and you know the stage is only so far from you. These conditions make a 4x binocular sufficient. For the purposes of birdwatching, you will want to start with a pair of 7x binoculars. I have never seen a 5x or 6x binocular so it really becomes the first possible choice.
These opera style binoculars might have worked in the old days, but we have much better options now.
Now, why do I suggest 7x binoculars? A few reasons.
Wider Viewing Area
This lower power will give you a wider viewing area. To visualize this, think of your regular eye vision as 1x. If you could double magnification, you could only see half of what you see now. As we increase the magnification, be continue seeing a smaller and smaller section of the view in front of us. This may seem counter-intuitive since if we could focus on the smaller section we could see the bird with less distracting surroundings. However, when you are just learning to use those binoculars, you’ll want to latitude of seeing a lot of area so the bird is included in your viewing even if you are centered on it. Think of it as a shotgun approach. With a shotgun, the slugs disperse in a wider pattern: if your aim is close, then you’ve succeeded in hitting the target. A rifle is just the opposite: one bullet going exactly where you aimed it, whether that was the target or not. The bird is our target. We want to identify it, but to do that we must see it first.
So the lower power binocular is utilizing the shotgun approach; the lower power allows you to see a wider area, and whether you are on target or not, the likelihood of the bird being in view is greater. As you get better and can bring the binoculars up and see the bird immediately, then you can move on to higher power binoculars.
Body Shake
Another reason to begin with lower power binoculars is because of body shaking. Forget the movies where a spy is using high power binoculars and the viewing is perfectly clear and steady. Not going to happen that way in the birdwatching world!
“lower power allows you to see a wider area, and whether you are on target or not, the likelihood of the bird being in view is greater.”
The greater the magnification, the greater the effect of your body shaking will be. Now, where does the body shake come from? At the very least, your heartbeat, that will introduce a consistent, though small, shake in your viewing. The next source will be in how well you brace your arms. What you will want to do is to brace your upper arms against your torso so that only the forearms are suspended out. This will greatly reduce shaking. That is about all you can do to control your body. The next source which you have no control over will be the wind. You will be surprised at how much the wind will move your body around and how difficult that will make it to stay focused on a particular viewing area in the binoculars. The only thing I have learned to do in that situation is not to concentrate on keeping the binoculars still, but to let your eyes wander within the viewing area to keep your eyes directly on the bird, no matter where it happens to be in the viewing area
Another technique to avoid shaking - use a wall, tree or other rigid object to help steady you while viewing birds
Solution # 2: Adjusting your binoculars
Just like many car owners, I can own a car for many years, and then find out about a gadget, switch or setting that I never knew about (I mean, like who reads the owner’s manual). Fortunately, your binoculars only have so many moving parts, but those can make all the difference for enjoyable birdwatching.
I will mention what needs to be adjusted for you, the user so that you can avoid eye strain and make the time you are using them enjoyable and productive. The major adjustment to be made will be setting the diopter eyepiece on the right hand side. Manufacturers know that everyone’s eyesight is different and so they make one eyepiece adjustable. Rather than try to explain how to do this, I would ask that you watch my video below.
Solution # 3: Binocular Workout - Use the binoculars before you need them
There’s nothing more dangerous than to do or use something for the first time when you really need to use it and be 100% efficient or effective in doing it. In birding, that would be the equivalent of learning how to use a spotting scope on your vacation to a hot birding spot where all these wonderful new birds are that you want to identify. And now, you can’t because you didn’t take the time to learn to do that when you had time to make mistakes.
So, let’s avoid that by pointing out how we can improve those odds. We want to learn how to find birds and identify them as quick as we can. My recommendation is to do the following and when you feel confident with each step, move on to the next.
First Step
Go outside with your binoculars. Spot a larger item. Remain looking at the item while bringing the binoculars up to your eyes. Did you have the object in the viewing area? How much were you off? Too high? Too low? To the left or right? Make a mental note of the positioning. Pick another object and repeat. You will start developing a “muscle memory” of how your hands need to bring the binoculars up so that the object is already in viewing area.
Second Step
The next step is to reduce the size of the object that you are trying to spot in the binoculars. This is basically just fine-tuning the “muscle memory” from the previous step. You are now trying to find bird-size objects and see them immediately in your viewing.
Third Step
The final step (and most complicated) is to do the above but have a distracting background (like branches in a tree) or one that has no distinguishing features (like the water on a lake or blue sky). In the case of the former you want to look for the bird in relation to landmark, perhaps a group of colored leaves or a unique looking branch formation. Bring your binoculars up to that landmark and then look for the bird. In the case of the latter, I raise the binoculars to where I think the bird is and then either vertically or horizontally until the bird comes in sight
Using a landmark to find a bird: Imagine a bird where blue oval is. It would be hard to find the right section of yellow leaves. I might use that branch that ends at bottom of circle as a landmark.
Next Steps: Get outside and start practicing
If you haven’t purchased your binoculars yet, you will want to check out my other blog post on binoculars. It has some other great information. Once you get them, adjust them for you and begin practicing. Remember, like I said, you don’t want to start learning how to use them effectively and efficiently when you start seeing that bird you want to identify. Good luck!