Any birders on here? What about bird-related jobs?

[Birdnerdperson]

Hey I'm new to the forum and I'm curious about how many of you guys go bird watching in your spare time. I started to more seriously after my first ornithology course in college. I even took my bird around with me for the first time for some casual bird watching/listening in the woods this week. She still gets startled by all the new things outside like birds flying around but gave off a few contact calls to some of the birds she heard. Do you guys have any cool experiences birding or favorite birds you've spotted?
As for jobs , I'm hoping to get a job studying birds or working with them in some capacity once I graduate. I've already done some cool stuff like banding songbirds and I love it. So any one else work with birds for a living or hope to? Or volunteer work?

[Wolf]

Not exactly what you were asking about but we have six acres of mountain land and make sure to provide habitat for the wild birds in the area as well as providing feeding stations for them pretty much year round and we have a pretty good variety of birds that we see on a regular basis from hawks and owls to hummingbirds and catbirds, crows and ravens cardinals doves, nuthatches and woodpeckers and when I go fishing or hunting I often see duck and cranes. These are the most common ones that I recognize here.

[Pajarita]

No, I have binoculars and a couple of field guides on American birds and I always try to spot and identify them but it's not something I do as a hobby. I also don't 'work' on any bird related jobs -well, I spend half my day cleaning cages and the birdrooms, cooking/washing/preparing food for them as well as spending hours just keeping them company, I do breed canaries every now and then and I do research on them every day as well as answer postings on a couple of sites -does that count as bird-related 'work'? Because, if it doesn't, it sure feels like it - LOL-

[Wolf]

sometimes it feels like more than one or two jobs

[marie83]

I dont know what sort of career with birds your thinking of but jobs in animal care are very hard to come by, even more so when its a specific type. You really need to get as much practical experience and as much reading of scientific papers behind you as possible. Good luck