Birders who are blind or have low vision may bird predominantly by ear… or not. Below are resources and tips from birders who are blind or have low vision, and from sighted birders who’ve been birding with folks who are blind or have low vision. We hope these ideas will help you start — or continue — to enjoy birding!

Thank you to the birders who’ve shared their tips for others to benefit from. If you have other tips that birders — or potential future birders — who are blind or have low vision may benefit from, please contact us to let us know. We’d love to add them here for more people to learn about so they can enjoy birding too!

Tips for birding if you have low vision

• Try to orient yourself so the sunlight (or other light source) is behind you, to minimize the effects of contrast and glare when you’re looking at the bird.

• Keep watching for movement; that will likely be the easiest way to help you locate the bird.

• Because binoculars create such a narrow field of view, you may find it easier to use a digital camera with a zoom lens. Looking through the camera you’ll be able to keep in the bird in the frame as you zoom in closer and closer, without loosing it by a minor inaccuracy with your binocular aim. No need to take a photo if you don’t want to!

• An inexpensive laser pointer, like the ones some professors use during lectures, may help your sighted birding buddy get you onto a bird more quickly than by giving directions.

  • Never point the laser pointer at the bird, or you risk damaging their eyesight.

  • It will be really hard for the birder with low vision to follow the laser if it’s circling the bird continuously. Instead:

  • Start the laser away from the bird on a large, more visually distinct object, like a tree trunk.

  • Move the laser slowly (too fast and the birder with low vision will be unable to keep tracking it).

  • Stop moving the laser about 1m below the bird. If the laser is always stationary below the bird, it will be easy for the birder with low vision to know exactly where to look.

• Thick forest is often really dark, so it can be really challenging to locate a bird. Have patience with yourself, and get used to scanning!

• If you can stand behind a sighted guide who is pointing at the bird, you may be able to line up their hand and their eyes to help you look in the right place.

Resources

• For a quick introduction to birding by ear, the Birding Tools podcast episode Learning Bird Sounds and Mnemonics has lots of helpful tips and fun ways to help you remember some common bird calls.

• National Audubon has a collection of articles about Birding by Ear on their website.

• For audio and Braille books on birds and birding, check out the list from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled Birding page

• The Peterson Field Guide To Eastern Birds Large Format Edition by Roger Tory Peterson (published in 1999) is the only large print field guide to birds of North America we know of. You can buy it directly from the publisher’s website here.

• For a very through course on birding by ear, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Academy offers Be a Better Birder: How to Identify Bird Songs. This online course is set up for beginners, takes about three hours, and costs $59.99. It is screen reader accessible, and has transcripts available (including descriptive content of any videos).

• Birding By Ear for All: free online course created in 2020 by Birds Canada about birding by ear for people who have vision impairments.

• Blind Birders Tip Sheet: Guidelines created by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in collaboration with a birder who is blind, providing clear guidance on etiquette when interacting with someone who is blind or has low vision and special tips for going birding.

Apps

• The free BirdNET app, created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and can identify birds by their calls with reasonable accuracy. BirdNET is compatible with TalkBack (the Android built-in screen reader) and VoiceOver (on iPhones), but the the portion of the screen where you need to "capture" the bird calls is not accessible.

• The Larkwire app helps users learn bird songs and calls. It is accessible to VoiceOver and the Backyard Bird pack is free. (Other bird packs, including Landbird Songs, Waterbirds, etc cost upwards of $10 each.)

• Both the Audubon Bird Guide app and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Merlin Bird ID app are free, include bird sounds and are accessible to VoiceOver (on Apple devices) and TalkBack (on android devices). This may help if you’re out in the field and would like to check on a bird’s call to help you narrow down which bird it is. (If you’re playing bird calls in the field, make sure you play them softly so you don’t disturb the birds.)

Writing from birders who are blind or have low vision

• Birdability Captain Michael Hurben, who has Retinitis Pigmentosa, wrote a guest Birdability Blog post called Disability need not stop the pursuit of an obsession: Legally blind birding, February 2021.

• Juan Pablo Culasso is a totally blind birder from Uruguay, who creates many recordings of birds sounds and works to share the joy of birding with others. You can learn more on his website (in Spanish and English): Sonidos Invisibles.

• Birding Blind: Open Your Ears to the Amazing World of Bird Sounds: article by Trevor Attenberg, who is legally blind, and published by National Audubon, October 2018.

• Birding by Ear and Beyond: article by Donna Posont, who is blind, about a program she established teaching kids who are blind to learn to bird by ear, fall 2016.

• Birding Despite Disability: blog by birder Michael Hurben, who has Retinitis Pigmentosa and is legally blind. He is aiming to have 5,400 species on his life list before he looses his vision completely.

• Brief blog posts by Jerry Berrier from 2014-2016 on the Perkin’s School for the Blind website about birding as a blind person.

• The Bird Blind : Jerry Berrier’s personal blog, updated in October 2020, with additional, brief information on birding while blind.

Photo in page header: Freya McGregor. Taken on the Buttermilk Falls Trail, Brandenburg, Kentucky.