Birding is a great hobby for persons who are blind or Visually impaired. A symphony of bird songs can turn an ordinary walk into a rich, rewarding experience.
Examples:
There are birding groups everywhere. Find a birding group in your area to help you get started.
Here is a partial list of groups that offer "Birding By Ear" tours in Marin County:
Merlin Bird ID is a free app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that helps identify birds by sight or sound. It is available for Android and iOS.
The Sound ID feature listens through your phone's microphone and tells you, in real time, which birds are singing or calling nearby. You can listen to reference calls in the app to improve your birding-by-ear skills.
Accessibility: Bird names are spoken or can be read by your screen reader. Some visual parts (like photos and spectrograms) aren't accessible, but the essential information -- the bird names and timing -- is available.
Birdability works to ensure that birding is welcoming, inclusive, and accessible for birders with disabilities or chronic health concerns, including those who are blind or have low vision. Birdability's resources and guidance emphasize strategies for making outings enjoyable and safe, including the use of spoken visual descriptions, accessible materials, and collaboration with sighted guides when requested. Through events like their Blind Birder Bird-a-Thon, webinars about birding by ear, sharing of resources, and shared community stories, Birdability highlights the expertise and joy that blind and low vision birders bring to the birding community.
We also held a very popular panel a few months ago on the Power of Birdsong with blind birders, Jerry Berrier and Susan Glass, that can be found at Power of Birdsong.
Hadley, formerly Hadley School For the Blind offers a workshop on birding for the blind. Birds and Birdsongs Series.