How to Know the Birds: Field Craft with Ted Floyd
Join us on a day of exploring birding field craft, and spend some serious quality time with the diverse and fascinating breeding bird community in and around Aspen. Field trips to different birding hotspots will give us direct experience with around 100 species of mainly mountain birds: everything from ridiculously colorful neotropical migrants to behaviorally complex waterfowl to striking raptors to hardy permanent residents of the boreal forest. We will cover the basics of bird identification—with an emphasis on the “whole bird” approach that encourages us to watch birds in a broad ecological context. A major theme will be bird study in the digital age; to that end, we will learn how to contribute our bird sightings to eBird and other citizen-science databases. Field time will be interactive, dynamic, and fun!
About the Instructor: Ted Floyd is the Editor of Birding magazine, the award-winning flagship publication of the American Birding Association. He has written five bird books, including the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America (HarperCollins, 2008) and How to Know the Birds (National Geographic, 2019). Ted’s newest book is Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada―West, 2nd Edition (National Geographic, 2025). Ted is also the author of more than 200 popular articles, technical papers, and book chapters on birds and nature. A graduate of Princeton University (A.B., 1990) and Penn State University (Ph.D., 1995), Ted has taught biology, math, and statistics to everyone from second graders to advanced graduate students.
Birding and Conversation Field Trip Series
In this special series we explore compelling topics pertaining to birds, from local history, to ecology and conservation. These field trips involve a combination of birding and presentations in the field with guests whose deep expertise provide unique insights into birds and the world we share with them. Join us for these opportunities for first-hand experience and discussions that will enhance your birding and broaden your understanding of the feathered wonders and the natural world around us!
2025 guests/locations in this series include Jody Cardamone at Toklat (Toklat/Mace legacy and approach to nature study, birds), Paul Andersen at Seven Castles (history of the Seven Castles area and its special birdlife), Adam McCurdy at Basalt Mountain (fire ecology, climate change and birds), Ted Floyd in the Frying Pan River Valley (a deep dive into field craft, from the author of National Geographic bird guides and editor of Birding magazine), and Bill Schmoker (tune in – birding by ear, learning bird sounds and their meanings)
Photo credit: Ted Floyd