By Jim Wright

Special to The Record | USA TODAY NETWORK - NEW JERSEY

    Today’s column is for folks who plan to travel this winter and want to see some new bird species along the way. I recently returned from a quick trip to Spain and took notes on how best to proceed.

   My advice: The most important steps are often the ones you take before you leave home.

   Part of the fun of traveling is the anticipation, and there’s no better way to increase that than to explore what awaits. I’d call it “doing your homework,” but that takes the fun out of it. 

   First, download eBird — if you haven’t already. With this great free app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, you can look up the best birding spots at your destination and find out what birds are being reported Then you can Google those species to familiarize yourself with them. 

    Not to belabor the obvious, but also do a search for your destination and “bird-watching” to find helpful websites. A Madrid search, for example, turned up a free downloadable pdf from the American Birding Association about birding there. If you bring a tablet, it’s a great pdf to have. 

  You can also go online to find out what bird walks are scheduled while you’re there, and then sign up in advance.   

  During your trip, the two must-haves are good binoculars and the Merlin app, also free from Cornell. The latter identifies birds by their calls (or with a digital image).

   If you don’t have this app on your phone, download it post haste.  If you do have it, be sure to upload the geographical bird pack for your destination. 

   Because I was traveling to Madrid, I downloaded the pack for “Europe: the Iberian Peninsula,” so I was good to go as soon as the plane touched down.

    You needn’t be a serious birder to enjoy Merlin. Just open the app and press the middle button labeled “sound.”

    For a test drive, I activated Merlin in Madrid’s Parque de el Retiro, the city’s equivalent of Central Park. Suggested bird IDs started popping up on the phone’s screen right away. 

  I was careful not to count any bird until I saw it myself or I had confirmed Merlin’s I.D. by sight.  I didn’t need Merlin’s help to I.D. the ubiquitous magpies and house sparrows and squawking Monk parakeets (Yes, Spain has them, too), although I wasn’t sure about the 10 cormorants and a gull. 

  Merlin came in handy to locate Eurasian blue tits and Eurasian jackdaws, but for the life of me, I could not find the short-toed treecreeper that the app had detected. 

   The most important advice: Be flexible and enjoy yourself. After all, birding abroad can be as simple as sitting on a park bench with your Merlin app and a café con leche and absorbing the natural world all around you.   

   Just one reminder – don’t forget those binoculars.

   The Bird Watcher column appears every other Thursday.  Email Jim at [email protected].