You might think of birding as a pursuit of pleasurable relaxation, a gentle, spiritual connection with nature that reduces stress and boosts feel-good hormones.
It’s not. It’s a physically and emotionally challenging activity that demands strength, endurance, flexibility and mental toughness. Want to get the most out of your birding experience? Practice the following exercises daily and you’ll be in tip-top shape for whatever flies your way.
Squats. This basic exercise helps build a strong foundation for spotting low-to-the-ground birds, supporting massive telephoto lenses and answering urgent calls of nature. Stand with your feet shoulder-length apart. Slowly bend your knees, keeping your weight centered, until you feel the urge to weep, then return to a standing position. To increase the intensity of the repetitions, extend your arms in front of you with a copy of The Sibley Guide to Birds in your hands, gradually building up to the entire Sibley 14-volume collection.
Binocular Lifts. A fundamental birding exercise that strengthens the muscles of your arms and shoulders for those long hours in the field. Stand in a relaxed position holding a pair of 8×40 binoculars at waist level (use 10x40s to really feel the burn). Slowly raise the bins to 90 degrees, then bring them to your eyes until you can focus on the terrain in front of you. Now swivel from your torso to the left, hold for 10 seconds, and return to center. Swivel to the right and hold; return to center. Repeat for four hours.
Torso Extensions. From a seated position, raise your right leg straight out in front of you. Bend the knee slightly. Slowly extend your torso forward until you can remove your shoe and empty out the quart of sand you picked up at Clam Beach chasing the Hudsonian Godwit. Return to the starting position and repeat with the left leg. Continue repetitions until all the sand is gone. This exercise also allows you to examine the soles of your shoes for dog, cow or goose poop, and the forward extension builds the flexibility needed to scratch poison oak on parts of your body hitherto unreachable.
Low Hurdles. At some point in your birding experience, you’ll find it necessary to cross a busy, shoulder-less highway and, with tractor trailers bearing down on you, heave yourself over a guard rail to see a mega-rarity (don’t ask me how I know this). Find a suitable location and perform five reps with all your birding gear. There are no style points awarded for this exercise; clearing the guard rail with the grace of a gazelle counts the same as balancing on your butt, throwing your legs over and falling into a heap on the other side.
Synchronized Standing. During the migration seasons, birding often becomes an impromptu group activity with multiple birders flocked together looking for the same rarity. The unwritten rules are different from, say, an organized nature walk with its accompanying relaxed vibe and bonhomie. A group chase, also known as a mob of birders or MOB, requires intense concentration, minimal conversation and 360-degree coverage, akin to a herd of wildebeests fending off a lion attack. Proper spacing between birders is essential: Each must have an unobstructed field of view and the ability to scan in several directions without clunking binoculars with the birder next to them. Participants move as a group, shuffling along like a multi-legged caterpillar.
Practice synchronized standing whenever you find yourself in a group of five or more birders chasing the same vagrant. For instance, the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher was recently spotted at the Arcata Marsh. Only when the target bird was spotted was the group permitted to break up. (From this point, pushing, shoving and trampling to achieve the best photograph are all acceptable.)
Neck Extension. Some birds, particularly warblers, tend to stay high in the treetops, and trying to observe them up in the canopy can lead to a condition known as “warbler neck.” The best way to avoid having your chiropractor on speed-dial is to be proactive by stretching and strengthening the muscles that support the head. Lace your fingers behind your neck and slowly tip your head back while applying gentle counter-pressure until you’re looking straight up. Any creaking and cracking of cervical vertebrae is completely harmless, probably. Now slowly bring your head back to its upright position. Is it … stuck? Might as well head to the Mad River levee in Blue Lake and check the treetops for a Blackburnian Warbler until your chiro can squeeze you in.
Shoulder shrugs. You arrive at the hotspot and find other birders packing up their gear. “It just flew east,” they tell you. Lift your shoulders and allow them to drop, adding a chagrined smile if you can muster one. You can kick empty boxes around and swear off birding forever when you get home.
Resistance Training. Birding fitness entails healthy practices for both body and mind. While the name of the exercise may evoke an image of colorful elastic bands, for birders it refers the ability to refrain from chasing rare birds when it’s not an appropriate time to do so. Evaluate your birding resistance level by taking the following quiz.
You should ignore a rare bird alert when you are:
a) at work.
b) at a funeral.
c) serving on a jury.
d) at the dentist’s office getting a root canal.
e) the dentist performing the root canal.
f) in flagrante with your partner.
g) none of the above.
If you chose (g), well, you’re a birder.
Sarah Hobart (she/her) is a freelance writer based in Humboldt County.
This article appears in ‘Crash Course’ A Halloween Comic by Liz Valasco and Collin Yeo.