“Bird watching” is out, and “birding” is in.
The phrase “bird watching” doesn’t cover the full range of people who love searching for birds. One in four American adults has some type of disability, and every individual has different accessibility needs.
For blind and low-vision birders, birding is done by ear.
Holly Walz is a park naturalist with the Wehr Nature Center, and Michael Diaz is a volunteer at the center. While Walz is a sighted birder and Diaz is a blind birder, both say that birding by ear is a skill that vision and non-vision-impaired folks can learn to help them identify birds.
They both spoke with Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez for this month’s Chirp Chat to share the joys of birding by ear and how the Wehr Nature Center is working to make the outdoors accessible for everyone.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Xcaret Nuñez: Why do we call it birding and not bird watching?
Holly Walz: My explanation for that is that “bird” is a verb. It's also a noun, but when you get outside, and you're looking for birds to hear or see them, it's an action, and it's called birding. You could just watch them, but what fun is that when you can hear their beautiful songs and define which birds you're actually listening to by what they sing.
Michael Diaz: My definition of it is — bird watching is for the sighted, but then what about us? I'm blind, and I listen to birds. I identify birds by sound. “Birding” is an all-inclusive term. And half of the time, you can't even see the birds because they're either hiding or covered by foliage, so you end up identifying them by ear anyway. So, “birding by ear” is basically identifying birds by sound. Some birds are very easy to identify by sound, while others get more advanced because they tend to sound similar, not the same, but very similar.
Holly told me you can identify more than 200 bird species. How can you differentiate so many bird songs?
Diaz: Learning from a young age definitely helped. I am 22 years old, and I've been birding ever since I was five. My mother's friend sent us a bunch of Birding By Ear CDs and a bird book, and I would just sit there and listen to those CDs for hours and hours. The CDs had 150 birds on them and would tell you how to identify them by sound. There are mnemonic devices that you can use. Mnemonic devices are basically “What does the bird sound like it's saying?” And you can use those to identify birds by sound as well. So that grew from 150, and then I became a lot more serious about it as well, and I just started learning through other methods, more CDs and just out in the field. I also use the [Cornell Lab] Merlin app, which is basically an app on your phone that can try to identify birds. This is not always accurate, so you have to identify them yourself and confirm it.
How do you help people learn how to bird by ear and remember bird songs?
Walz: It's practice, it's repetition. It's picturing something in your head that goes along with the bird song that you're hearing. Sometimes it's a “Sounds like…,” as in with the Northern Cardinal: It sounds like a laser gun sometimes, or sometimes he says “pretty, pretty, pretty,” or “wit, wit, wit.” It just depends on the bird and what works for you, because what works for me may not work for everyone. I offer several different options to help people remember [bird songs] and remind people they’re not going to walk out knowing how to identify all the birds by song; they’re going to have to practice. And that's the beauty of it, because it's meditative, it's a hobby that doesn't cost very much money, and anyone can do it. It gets people outdoors and increases our health, and health is wealth.
How is Wehr Nature Center working to make the outdoors accessible for everyone?
Diaz: I use my white cane as a blind person to navigate trails, and I will often have a sighted guide, especially if I don't know the area. At Wehr Nature Center, we made tactile and braille maps and trail descriptions that people can use to orient themselves and identify trails they want to go on.
Walz: We also have a mile of accessible boardwalk, meaning that it's a hard surface that's easier for people to walk on, to roll on and to use their white canes. The boardwalk has raised edges so that people should not be able to fall off the edge, whether they go on their own or with a sighted guide. We have accessible restrooms, mobility devices to help people get outside if they have mobility restraints, such as rollerators, wheelchairs and seat canes. [Wehr Nature Center] believes the outdoors are for everyone, and it's free — aside from our $5 parking fee. But anybody should be able to get outside and enjoy the outdoors.
Wehr recently hosted its second-ever Blind Birder Birdathon and hosted a Birding By Ear program. How did these events start?
Walz: I grew up in the South, so we have heavy vegetation around at all times, and so the birds would hardly ever be in sight. So I began birding by ear very young. It was a realm of nature that [the Wehr Nature Center] hadn't had any programming on before, so when I first became a naturalist with the Nature Center about five years ago, I started the birding by ear program. I heard about BirdAbility's Blind Birder Birdathon, and last year was their first iteration of it. They tried it again this year with even more support from around the world, so I can only see it getting bigger. It was also a great way to introduce a group of people who hadn't been to the center about our trails and how accessible they are. Or learn how they aren't accessible as well — it's always a work in progress.
Chirp Chat’s Bird of the Month for May 2026
Veery
“I want to highlight a Veery because, I mean, it's pretty, but it's not brightly colored like other birds – It doesn't really catch your eye,” says Diaz. “But the Veery has one of the most beautiful bird songs I've ever heard. So even if a bird looks “boring,” it can have a beautiful song. That's why you should bird by ear.”
Blackburnian Warbler
“I just saw a Blackburnian warbler the other day,” says Walz. “It was a male with a fiery orange throat, bright as the sun. You almost had to put on sunglasses just to look at him. He was actively feeding among the oak flowers that were budding on the oak tree, and it was a moment that I could relish in the sunshine outside.”
