Great question. I believe mine was the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

My spark was fishing from a canoe. Years ago, we got a canoe to fish remote areas. We saw so many different birds while fishing, my interests slowly evolved. It also gives you something to do when the fishing is slow. I also noticed birds are not afraid as much when your in a canoe. I can get much closer to a bird in a canoe than I can on foot.

Mine was the mourning dove. If you talk to them softly they will watch as you walk right up to them. Did you know that they have a pink circle on their neck and when they tilt their heads it really shimmers? I thought that was neat so I started watching to see what other birds we had.

Chickadee's. Love their acrobatic, energy, and boldness. They are also pretty darn cute.

I don't know what my spark bird was, but I can say I have a bit of an obsession with owls. :-)

Mine were the bluebirds. They've checked out my house for the past 3 yrs, but the HOSPS have always scared them off. This year I'm ready.

Chickadees - I guess that might be obvious :). I was so happy to see them in our yard the first time. And I love to hear their chatter.

Indigo Bunting (male)...I had never seen one (or maybe just never noticed) until my neighbors put up a feeder. We would sit on their deck and watch the goldfinches and then this bright blue bird showed up and we just had to find out what it was. I was hooked after that.

Mine was the Ruby-throated hummingbird. I've always loved birds, but never really studied them before I discovered the Ruby-throats.

House sparrows : )

I used to watch them on the fence outside the window of my elementary school.

This was a good question because I'd never thought about it before and now that I have for a couple hours, I'd say Common Loons. Took my first photo of a mother on her nest on East Grand Lake, in Maine while kayaking. Beautiful!

Wow. What a great question. That's why I love this forum. I've loved birds since I was a child.

It was a great blue heron for me. I was sitting in traffic and it flew over and caught my eye.

Pam

Mine was a Common-yellowthroat, and I've never looked back.

I moved to a house that had a Blue Bird box. Dumb luck the first year I saw them fledge, I knew nothing about them. They got me so hooked on all birds I now call my fish pond a "bird pond".

My interest start way back when I was still in school. GR 1 in 1944. I lived way up in the bush in Northern Ontario and went to a one room school grades 1-10. No power etc. Used skis in the winter to go to school.Our teacher ( we only had one ) had a "bird chart" on the wall each spring and whoever saw the first bird of any kind would have there name on it. It really got us looking for birds and recognizing them.

Mine was a Western Bluebird. I saw it on a fence post traveling in the coastal countryside in Northern California. Not long after that, I saw an article about their decline and need of nesting boxes. Then I started noticing nesting boxes from time-to-time in the country and I knew what they were and began to appreciate birding in a new way. That was 1981 (noted in my first bird book) and the rest is history for me.

Great question, Georgia Kate. Thanks.

30 years ago I noticed the Eastern Blue Bird,Thought he was wonderful. Then the hummingbird was next ,The rest is History. My Husband & I were hooked. I have had feeders for hummers ever since, Then everybody in my family that seen them went home to put up feeders. I am always looking . Patricia

Eastern Meadowlark. When I was 16, I spent the summer on my grandparents farm in the Ozarks. I had a paint horse that I would ride everyday after my chores back to the stock pond to go fishing. As we rode across the pasture, we would flush Meadowlarks and I started noticing they had territories with strict boundaries they would stay within. I became fascinated and have watched birds since then.

Great question! I always wanted to know the names of flowers, trees etc. (Mom always joked my first words were "What's that?") but I guess a Red Bellied WP made me really start looking at each & every bird-I couldn't understand why they were called that until I saw my first Red Headed WP.
Susan

I was born and grew up in Haiti so all the birds I saw were tropical and I knew them by their local Creole names. But my grandmother, who lived on the farm where I now live, would send us wildlife and bird books for our birthdays and Christmas. When I was five she sent me a large illustrated Birds of North America book so I memorized the birds, drew and painted them so that when I came here I already knew them. Now I'm finding that the birds I took for granted in Haiti are rare, endangered, endemic species. The White-necked Crows were so intelligent they'd learn human speech just from overhearing it.

When I rode my horse the huge mango and mombay trees would echo with wild voices calling my name they'd learned from my Hisponola Amazon Parrot-another intelligent species that spoke 200 words, two languages, and even sang in Creole.

my folks moved to Nevada when i was a toddler and had not seen any birds but chickens and farm birds. Nevada was desert and sagebrush and few trees in peoples yards. It was hot hot summers but there was a lake about 10 miles away. i learned to swim and fish and hunt and explore at the lake. I would sit on shore fishing and watch the loons and ducks and pelicans and geese for hours at a time.

When I was about 10 years old (that's about 45 years ago), a flock of Evening Grosbeaks landed in our yard. I have been watching birds ever since, but that was the one and only time I saw an Evening Grosbeak.

The first hook was Cedar Waxwings, I just thought they were so elegant.

The one that sealed the deal was Western Bluebirds. We were on a camping trip with another couple and found a flock of them feeding on insects on a mountainside - hovering and darting and OH SO BEAUTIFUL!

Then the Barred Owl was another big one to keep me interested.

And it didn't hurt to have a Varied Thrush show up.

Of course the Pileated Woodpeckers and Red-headed Woodpeckers are just icing on the cake.

The Chickadees and Nuthatches will keep me entertained for hours.

And spring - with the Baltimore Orioles, Orchard Orioles, American Goldfinches, House finches, and more ... who could ask for more?

Oh, sorry, got off track, the answer to your question was Cedar Waxwings.

For me, the house wren. My dad put up a wren house in the pear tree in our vegetable garden, and it seemed friendly, coming close and singing "to us", or so it seemed. We knew when it returned in the spring, because typically, Dad would be shaving in the bathroom and the wren would land in the lilacs outside the bathroom window and sing. Dad was convinced that the wren knew where to find him, and was announcing his return at the earliest opportunity. Then Dad, with shaving cream still on his face, would come out and announce to the family: "The wren is back!"

Mine was a house finch. I had just had a class where the prof. had us learn birds. I bought my parents a bird feeder for Christmas, and then a couple of months later I saw a "strange sparrow with a red head".