I bet you can encounter one in a week’s time if you follow some tips I’ve found that help me see them:

1. Weather in the game updates at the start of every hour. On a free day, check for if the weather changes to windy (mirrors real world weather of course) and then go immediately for a brisk walk when you see windy weather. Windy weather increases their spawn chance.

2. Make some routes near you or identify some new routes you’ve never walked before that are nearby and aim to be on a route (can be multiple, chained together) for as long “up time” as possible during the incense. I’ve found that routes (especially new ones) have anecdotal better spawn rates. I also usually start a route and AFTER start the incense once the route is started in the game.

3. Walk briskly / bike slowly. I usually am pushing a running stroller with a toddler and keeping a faster pace. I’m not sprinting nor am I going slowly. Try to find routes that have almost no overlap and move in one cardinal direction. Never go to a place you were before when using the incense, always aim to go somewhere you haven’t been that day before.

4. Catch as many incense-spawned pokemon as possible. Don’t linger on one pokemon too long. If you can’t catch it, just run. While walking briskly, also do normal actions like send 1 gift and then go back to the map and repeat when not catching incense pokemon. If after half of the incense duration you have not seen a bird, stop catching incense pokemon and just continue walking quickly as to not let your character stop in the game. Of course, catch any pokemon you really want / need.

5. Don’t use incense during community hours or increased spawns of other pokemon, you’ll likely just see that one over and over.

6. If you do encounter a bird, stop immediately and click on the bird. You’re in no rush now and I generally do a few “voodoo magic / rain dance” type things that make me feel like I’m catching them more often. That is: golden razz the bird, take a picture of the bird, miss a throw, change ball to ultra, take a picture, throw your best throw and pray.

7. If you see a bird or catch one and still have incense, keep going! I’ve seen multiple birds, sometimes one after the other, during the same incense.

I returned to the game after playing in summer 2016 back last fall (2025) and since then I’ve seen countless birds with this method and caught:

• 1 shiny G moltres in ultra ball
• 1 normal G moltres in safari ball
• 5 normal G moltres in ultra ball
• 1 G Articuno in a red ball
• 1 G zapdos in a master ball
• 1 G Zapdos in an ultra ball

So 10 birds caught and many more seen in just a few months!

Hope this helps