Go (Christmas) Bird Counting With Your Kids--and Bring the Right Binoculars

Credit: USFWS

You thought the fervor, throngs, and wide-eyed enchantment were but a memory until the next holiday season, but wait! Some adults will have one more chance to experience the Christmas Bird Count magic—this time, with their kids. On Saturday, January 15th, Sonoma Valley will host a CBC designed for children. The first of its kind, according to co-founder Tom Rusert, the program piloted in 2008 and has expanded to multiple locations in the U.S. and Canada, reports Sonoma News.

Unable to accommodate the overwhelming interest from area families in regular counts, Rusert and Darren Peterie, both compilers for the Sonoma Valley CBC, pioneered the event in cooperation with the Madrone Audubon Society, among other groups. “The objective,” said Rusert, “is to have fun and potentially create a hometown team of birders and conservationists for the future while encouraging families to enjoy and respect nature together,” reported Birder’s World magazine.

Results from the first kids' count included highlights such as red-breasted sapsuckers, Cooper’s hawks, a white-tailed kite, and wintering yellow-rumped warblers. “For most of the children and their parents it was the first time they had birded, and many had never seen Sonoma Valley in this light,” said Rusert in an article he authored for American Birds (a pdf of his article is available online). For more on Sonoma Valley’s CBC 4 Kids, visit SonomaBirding.com. Try contacting your local Audubon chapter or nature center to see if there’s a kids’ CBC in your area taking place this weekend, or slated for next season. Some wildlife refuges also offer counts for young people. (For avian anecdotes from the regular CBC, click here.)

Of course, you don’t have to attend a CBC in order to bird with your kids. Before setting out, however, armor your fledgling birders with a pair of binoculars that’s right for them (hmm, a future holiday or birthday gift idea?). Audubon’s Wayne Mones offered these tips in the magazine’s July-August 2010 issue:

• Comfort is key Kids have small faces and hands, so they need bins that are easy to hold, can be adjusted to match the distance between their eyes, and allow them to easily reach the focus knob. The binoculars should be light enough to wear comfortably.
• Keep magnification low Don’t buy binoculars with more than 8x magnification; 6x is better. High magnification equals a narrow field of view and a shaky image, making bins harder to use—especially for kids.
• Adjust to fit Spend a few minutes with your child adjusting the binoculars to match the distance between her eyes. If she doesn’t wear glasses, extend the eyecups; keep them retracted if she does. Make sure that she can see a single image and that she can turn the focus knob easily.
• Practice Take your child to a pond or the seashore, where she can look at waterfowl and wading birds, which are big and stay in one place long enough to find with binoculars. Teach her to first look at the bird without binoculars and to then bring them up to her eyes without looking away from the bird. Move on to smaller, faster birds when she seems ready. Teach your child to always wear the binocular strap around her neck.
• What to buy Pentax Papilio 6.5x21 (less than $120). Designed to look at butterflies, these bins focus down to 18 inches, so kids can use them to examine bugs and flowers as well as birds. They weigh almost nothing. Leupold Yosemite 6x30 Porro Prism (about $80). These bins were inspired by a Leupold employee who wanted bird-worthy, kid-friendly bins for his six-year-old daughter. They are bright, sharp, and lightweight. Nikon Prostaff 8x25 (about $100). This model is sized for a child’s hand and face and provides a sharp, bright image.