Quin's
favorites:
Bald
Eagle
Great
Blue
Heron
Snapping
Turtle
Green
Heron
Quin's tips on how to get started watching
birds and reporting them online:
Take a picture of it, use the Merlin app to ID, confirm
Merlin's suggestion in a field guide, log in to your
Wings Over Arkansas log or with e-bird.
What can you share with other kids to get
them interested in bird watching?
I look at birding as a game, to see how many birds I
can photograph. It's also an I Spy game finding them,
especially when there are leaves on the trees. It's
also fun to earn the Wings Over Arkansas pins and
certificates.
While taking all these photos,
Quin began helping log the different
birds wherever he went. And he
used his backyard photo practice to
start keeping track of the birds he
photographed.
Quin has recently learned a lot
about determining and identifying
birds. He explains how he got
started. "This past Spring I learned
about the Merlin Bird ID app. I then
could take a picture of my LCD screen
showing the bird I just photographed and it would guide me
toward identifying it. I started doing backyard bird counts this
past Summer, and in the Fall learned of e-Bird."
Canada Goose family
Mallard
ducks
Carolina
wren
Of f icialKidsMag.com • FEBRUARY 2020 • 37
