Birding has changed since 1926, yet not entirely

Barred Owl. Photo by Steve Rushing, Birds Georgia Photographers Network

by Steve Phenicie

Little did the Barred Owl know that it was participating in a historic occasion.

One hundred years to the day after the Atlanta Bird Club held its first bird walk on March 21, 1926, Birds Georgia held a centennial walk to commemorate the event.

The place was the same – Emory University – although the walk a century ago didn’t
start until 9:30 a.m., a bit late by today’s standards.

On this year’s walk, the Barred Owl was perched only about 10 feet above the ground
and just few feet from the path. It was quite willing to pose for pictures as the
approximately 15 birders led by Bert Pearce oohed and aahed about it. The birders also
saw about 30 other species, including a couple of Wood Ducks, a Pied-billed Grebe or
two, and an early Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. As the group was tallying its totals, a Great
Blue Heron flew overhead as if to say “Don’t forget me,” and later a Mallard appeared at
the last moment.

So how has birding changed in the last century?

Technology, of course, has made a difference. Remember being in the middle of a mosquito-infested swamp when it was raining and windy and you just had to know right then whether Roseate Spoonbills nest in North Carolina? You hauled out your dog-eared field guide – perhaps kept in a plastic bag – and started thumbing through it as the rain pelted your face (and the book). No more. You reach for your phone and quickly get your answer from apps such as Merlin and Audubon. By the way, Roseate Spoonbills don’t nest in North Carolina.

​Another significant change is how we count birds. In the old days, we used paper
checklists such as the local “Checklist of the Birds of Atlanta.” It’s possible that the
birders on that first walk in 1926 just wrote down what they saw on a tablet, but paper
checklists have been around a long time. Thomas Jefferson came up with what is likely
the first published birding checklist in his 1785 book, “Notes on the State of Virginia,”
which included 125 species he had observed.

Nowadays, of course, we have eBird, which is good not only for enumeration but terribly
handy when you want to know whether there have been any Ruddy Ducks around
Murphey Candler Park lately or who is seeing what at Constitution Lakes.

And today we don’t even have to leave our homes as video cameras focused on nests
provide close-ups of birds going about their business.

Birders of 1926 had a chance to see some birds that we can’t see today because they
are extinct. The Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon were already gone by then, but the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, last seen in the U.S. in 1944, and the Bachman’s
Warbler, which disappeared in the 1980s, were hanging on.

Some things haven’t changed so much.

Binoculars were around in 1926, of course, with one source saying that their origins effectively go back to the invention of corrective eyeglasses in late 13th century Italy. Ones specifically designed for birding began appearing late in the 19th century. Spotting scopes for birders, although they have become more sophisticated, have existed since about 1893. Finally, birding’s mid-winter extravaganza, the Christmas Bird Count, was well-established by 1926, having been started in 1900.

Birders at Birds Georgia's Centennial bird walk on March 21, 2026.