What Bird Is That?

Birds can be enjoyed simply for their color, movement, and song, but anyone with a little curiosity wants to know which birds are visiting their yards.

While we get simple enjoyment from sharing our yard with birds, and even more pleasure from making it attractive for them by putting up feeders, water features,  nesting boxes, and organizing our gardening with birds in mind, we can obtain even more pleasure from the birds that visit us if we watch and understand what they are doing. The first step in this is to positively identify the birds we have.

Field Guide - see  below for link

 What bird is that? - Positive Identification

To identify a bird, you can either use a field guide or ask a birder.  Both work only if you observe and note the bird's features carefully.  Some things to jot down are:

• physical features (see chart)
• voice
• flight
• posture
• how it walks or hops
• where did you see it
• size: length of wing & tail
• its bill shape & size

It takes time to develop an eye for the significant details while bold features are easy to remember but they may be shared by more than one species.  Tiny but vital details are often easy to miss.  You may find it helpful to make notes or drawings.

Use the names of the parts labeled on this picture chart I made when taking notes.  You can even trace over it so that you have an outline on which you can quickly fill in the details of a mystery bird.  Note the colors of the plumage, and the size, shape, and color of the lets and bill.  Look for details like is there a stripe on the face, does it run through the eye or above it?  Judge the size of teh bird by comparing it to a well-known bird.
 

Field Guide to North American Birds

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