Winter birdwatching indoors

Birdwatching can actually be an arduous undertaking if you elect to head to the jungles, climb mountains or visit polar areas in pursuit of rare birds. On the other hand, I don’t know of too many outdoor activities that you can also enjoy right from the comfort of your living room or kitchen, provided you keep the binoculars handy and have a window to watch birds in your backyard. This time of year, especially, is when I do most of my bird watching indoors, thanks to my bird feeders.

Winter is considered to be a slow time of the year for birding in northern areas of the country because a great many bird species migrate south for the winter. This means that winter is the season that presents the least variety of birds for your birding binoculars and also the lowest number of birds, overall. Feeding birds improves your odds of seeing birds, immensely, both in terms of variety and numbers.

Our northern Wisconsin winters are especially bird poor. In fact, I could bundle up, grab the binoculars, and head out into our snowy woods and look for birds and still not see as many birds as I can by just sitting in my kitchen, binoculars in hand, watching the feeders. I still bundle up and head outdoors on a daily basis to go skiing or run my English Setter and when I do, I always carry at least one of my compact binoculars to see what birds I can. Most of the birds are back at our bird feeders, though.