Anyone can be a bad-ass birder. If you have ID skills and a commitment to sharing your observations with the scientific world via eBird, you can make contributions. No need for following all the steps of the scientific method. No need to learn R or fancy statistical packages. No struggling with the publication process.
Simply identify and count birds, keep accurate track of where you are and how much time you spend searching for birds, then enter those data into eBird. Let the big brains of the world work with your valuable observations, combine your bird data with similar data from thousands of other generous birders and feel great about your contributions to science.
To learn more about what I and my students do, check the people page.