To become a successful birder, you may have to change the habits of a lifetime. The best birders rise before dawn, put on drab clothing, go out in all weathers, and learn to move carefully and quietly, keeping their ears open and their voices soft.

CLOTHING
Unless you have always been an outdoor person, you will find your wardrobe gradually transformed and your conversation increasingly filled with discussions of boots, rain gear, and long underwear. The most important rule is: Wear dull colors, preferably the natural ones, muted greens, browns, and grays. Steer clear of apparel that squeaks, rustles, or gets snagged easily. In the desert, birders need footgear that is thornproof; elsewhere, choose comfortable shoes that dry quickly or waterproof boots. Boots with rubber feet and leather tops are a widespread favorite, but as you track birds across mud flats and marshes you may want knee or hip boots as well. Since birding often requires standing around in sharp winds and icy temperatures, layers of protection against the cold are essential. However, soundproof ear coverings should be avoided, except perhaps on winter boat trips, one of the coldest of all birding situations.

THE CLOCK
Songbirds are easiest to see during the three hours after dawn, when they feed most actively. The two hours before sunset can also be productive. During the rest of the day, most small birds are relatively sluggish and silent, especially on a warm afternoon. On the other hand, most kinds of water birds are easy to find throughout the day. Vultures, hawks, and eagles are most likely to be seen well after sunup; they hunt when visibility is best and soar on the thermal currents formed by sun-warmed air.

Dusk is the best time to scan winter fields and marshes for Shorteared Owls, cruise back roads for nightjars and displaying Woodcock, and visit summer marshes for spectacular flights of herons and ibis and glimpses of most of the rails.

Birders usually search for rails and owls at night and arm themselves with tape recordings of owl calls and strong flashlights. During spring migration and early in the nesting season, birders in the field at first light are treated to the auditory excitement of the dawn chorus; woodland species in particular join in a crescendo that gradually dies away after sunrise.

REGIONAL RESOURCES
Many states, provinces, and regions now have annotated checklists or bird finding guides that indicate the time of year that each species is present and most common, as well as the locations and habitats where each might be found. Such a list or guide should be one of your first purchases. If your region has not yet produced this kind of guide, buy one for the area nearest you.

Local bird clubs schedule field trips to visit areas at the times of year that birds are most plentiful there or when seasonal specialties are present. If you cannot join a group expedition, try to visit the site within a week or two of a scheduled outing. Club newsletters or calendars often list other events of interest, like pelagic trips organized especially for viewing seabirds and marine mammals. In many areas throughout the United States and Canada, recorded telephone messages are available to birders. Updated once or twice a week, they supply information about unusual sightings in the area as well as news of migration, birding sites, and field trips. Call the local chapter of the National Aubudon Society for the telephone number, or ask birders you meet in the field for it. These messages often provide directions to spots where rare birds have been found; these spots are often fruitful places for a visiting birder to look for common local species as well.

WEATHER
Every birder yearns to go afield on a beautiful spring or autumn day, but wind, rain, and extremes of temperature may keep you inside when some birds are most visible.

Although strong winds keep small birds out of sight, many water birds huddle close to the windward shore, in the lee of protecting banks, dunes, or vegetation. In autumn especially, a day or two after a cold front has passed through, northerly winds bring the best conditions for watching raptors migrating down mountain ridges or along the coasts. Onshore gales accompanying major coastal storms provide the best opportunities of observing seabirds of all kinds from land, and the first day after a hurricane many birders rush to the coast or to bays, rivers, and major lakes within a hundred miles or so of the sea.

Although bird-watching is virtually impossible in heavy rain, there is a lot of activity immediately after the rain stops. If you can keep your binoculars dry, a low ceiling and light drizzle can produce the best possible conditions for seeing migrating passerines. Songbirds are often forced down by nasty weather aloft; since they may occupy whatever cover they can find, you are likely to see a hedgerow, a clump of trees, or a bushy ravine alive with birds.

The hottest days of summer coincide with the peak migration time for southbound shorebirds. During the heat shimmer of late morning and early afternoon, go for a swim or hide in air-conditioned shelter, but take advantage of the long hours before and after the worst heat of the day.

Cold winter weather is good for birding snugly from your car, searching open country for raptors and visiting seedeaters such as longspurs and Snow Buntings. You may want to comb through stands of conifers for wintering owls, seek out patches of open water where waterfowl crowd together, or scan landfills, harbors, and beaches for rare gulls. If you notice a feeding station, check to see what species are visiting it.

EFFECTIVE BEHAVIOR
The fundamental skills of birding are looking, listening, moving carefully, and concentrating on one bird at a time.

On foot, a birder is likely to cover less than one mile an hour. The point is to hear every chip note and to spot every movement. Once you have heard a sound or seen a movement, your goal is to locate, identify, and observe the bird without frightening it away.

Although sharp eyes are partly a gift, the ability to pick up motion improves with practice. Always locate and relocate the bird first without binoculars. Keep your eyes on the motion while you move your binoculars in front of them. When you acquire a telescope, study the bird's surroundings through binoculars before you narrow your field of vision a second time by looking through the more powerful optical instrument.

Study an unfamiliar bird thoroughly before you turn to a field guide. If you cannot bear to take notes on its appearance and behavior before you try to identify it, at least tell yourself exactly what features you are seeing and hearing before you turn to a guide; if the bird flies away when your eyes are not on it, you will still have several features to check. If there are two of you, you can describe it to each other; one person can keep track of the bird while the other does the first round of research.

Looking for land birds requires a minimum of conversation and a maximum of attention to sounds. Speak only when you must, and then in a soft voice or whisper. Learning to recognize songs takes most of us much longer than visual identification, and learning all the chips, calls, and alarm notes is the task of a lifetime. Begin by tracking down and identifying every invisible singing bird you can. Try to verbalize the pattern you hear, and commit it to memory. Avoid abrupt movement: Shift position only if you have to, and then do so slowly and gently. Learn to refrain from pointing, or to point with your finger only, keeping your hand against your body. Better yet, practice describing where a bird is as economically as possible.

As you stalk a bird, learn to recognize its signs of alarm: a freeze in posture, a cocked head, a half-raising of the wings, and so on. If these clues tell you that you are getting too close, back off a little, or at least stop moving until the bird shows that it is used to your presence.

Try not to loom over a bird. Stay off the skyline if you can; on high ground, crouch or sit. The less conspicuous you are, the more birds you are likely to see.

Imitations of the Eastern Screech-Owl's call in the East or of the Northern Pygmy-Owl's call in the West are enormously effective for attracting small birds. If you cannot master the screech-owl's tricky call, use a taped version; it works even better. Anybody can learn to "spish," that is, to make the sound "spshsh, spshsh, spshsh," which can draw quite a crowd of songbirds if you keep at it long enough. One responsive chickadee can pull in dozens of other birds if you keep it fussing at you. Most important, remember that overuse of these techniques quickly turns into harassment, and there is no excuse for seriously upsetting a bird, especially one that may be nesting.

Copyright 1996 Alfred A. Knopf. All rights reserved.