slf4j - what exactly is the compile time binding?

Question

I was trying to understand slf4j binding. I read that it binds to a specific binding implementation during compile time by looking for jars on it's classpath.

But after looking at the code for the bind() method in LoggerFactory class it appears that it looks for StaticLoggerBinder class during runtime.

Relevant Code:

private static String STATIC_LOGGER_BINDER_PATH = "org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class";

static Set<URL> findPossibleStaticLoggerBinderPathSet() {
    // use Set instead of list in order to deal with bug #138
    // LinkedHashSet appropriate here because it preserves insertion order during iteration
    Set<URL> staticLoggerBinderPathSet = new LinkedHashSet<URL>();
    try {
        ClassLoader loggerFactoryClassLoader = LoggerFactory.class.getClassLoader();
        Enumeration<URL> paths;
        if (loggerFactoryClassLoader == null) {
            paths = ClassLoader.getSystemResources(STATIC_LOGGER_BINDER_PATH);
        } else {
            paths = loggerFactoryClassLoader.getResources(STATIC_LOGGER_BINDER_PATH);
        }
        while (paths.hasMoreElements()) {
            URL path = paths.nextElement();
            staticLoggerBinderPathSet.add(path);
        }
    } catch (IOException ioe) {
        Util.report("Error getting resources from path", ioe);
    }
    return staticLoggerBinderPathSet;
}

What am I missing here, or where exactly is the confusion arising?