Online: Wednesday, August 4, 2021 at 3:00 PM Arizona Time (MST)

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Birding Fast and Slow

As we know, birding can be immensely gratifying. As a pastime it is like a good hot sauce, it goes well with everything but there is a lot to it that we do not think about. A brain actually engages in different ways to identify a bird depending on whether you are new to birding or have been doing it for years. Learning about the brain and how we process birding information, can make birding easier, particularly bird identification. Some aspects of what we do as birders is reflexive, other aspects are deeply thoughtful and contemplative. There is a lot to birding, and perhaps what we forget is that it is a privilege to be connected with nature ... and it is also fun and absolutely wonderful for your health. Perhaps one day doctors will prescribe birding to people!

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Alvaro Jaramillo, owner of birding tour company Alvaro’s Adventures, was born in Chile but began birding in Toronto, where he lived as a youth. He was trained in ecology and evolution with a particular interest in bird behavior. Research forays and backpacking trips introduced Alvaro to the riches of the Neotropics, where he has traveled extensively. He is the author of the Birds of Chile, an authoritative yet portable field guide to Chile’s birds. Alvaro writes the Identify Yourself column in Bird Watcher’s Digest magazine. Alvaro recently wrote part of the sparrow chapter for the Handbook of Birds of the World, and the new ABA Field Guide Birds of California. He was recently granted the Eisenmann Medal by the Linnaean Society of New York, awarded occasionally for excellence in ornithology and encouragement of the amateur. He organizes and leads international birding tours, as well as a full schedule of pelagic trips in central California. Alvaro lives with his family in Half Moon Bay, California.