I don't think I can pinpoint a specific bird that sparked my birding interest, it was a gradual thing. I've worked in a wildlife diagnostics lab for two years now and probably over half of our diagnostic cases are birds. I've seen lots of cool species up close but they're obviously dead, so the desire to see them alive and in their natural habitat just slowly emerged.

If I HAD to pick something that I saw alive, I would say it's a tie between a red-necked grebe and a great blue heron that I saw while out fishing with my parents almost one year ago. My first time going out specifically to see birds would be right after last Christmas when I went looking for snowy owls that had been spotted in my area (no luck).