Identifying Birds
Bird watching involves identifying birds by their physical attributes as well as by their behavior. There are 9 points that can be used when identifying bird species – size, color, shape, bill (shape and color), leg (length and color), eye color, flight pattern, habitat and distribution. It is best to use a field guide for your area, for example a field guide on identifying British birds if you are in Britain, as these will contain the species for your area. The secret to bird identification is to recognize which family the bird belongs to. From there, finding the exact species is matter of elimination.
Let us take the example of identifying birds of prey. If you saw a large raptor with legs feathered to the feet, large powerful talons, you would know that it is a true eagle. To identify the exact species you would consider habitat, size and coloration. Another example of identifying birds of prey is: If you saw a small raptor with pointed wings, a long narrow tail, facial markings like “sideburns”, direct flight with rapid wing beats and hunting on the wing, you would know it belongs to the falcon family. By process of elimination you would identify the exact species of falcon.
When identifying backyard birds, consider the above points and pay particular attention to distribution. Distribution is an accurate and great help in identifying a bird. If a bird is noted as not being found in your area, chances are it’s a different species that you have spotted. Identifying garden birds can be difficult and may require the use of binoculars to note leg and bill color. However, starting with identifying backyard birds is the perfect way to begin birding.
Another useful way to determine bird species is by identifying bird song. Many CDs are available to assist in identifying bird song. Bird song is very species specific and leaves you with little doubt as to the bird you are listening to.
Once you have started to identify birds using the above tips, you will understand the delight that many bird watchers experience in observing these feathered wonders.
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i live in ocean shores washington and i seen for the first time a black and blue bird in my backyard and i wanted to know if anyone could tell me what it is. it look like a cardinal but it had a black upper body and a deep blue lower part of its body. i would say about half and half of the colors. it was a bird about a little bit bigger than a robin. thank you for your help.
For those of us birders who have an Iphone the Audubon just came out with a new great application to help identify birds. There are great images, range maps and voice examples. Check it out!
Reggie Roan Eagle i think your bird is a Superb Blue Fairy Wren!
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I live in Tarpon Springs Florida, and we have a swampy, boggy area behind our house with a lot of huge trees. In the treeline on the farthest edge of this wooded area,we keep seeing a HUGE bird of prey of some type that we can’t identify. I would say it’s wing span is at least 5 feet, maybe more, and we watch it bring food up to the same branch of the same tree every day pretty much. It is not black, more of a dark greyish color, with lighter feather underneath, with some spotty lighter areas on it’s back and underneath. I would guess it is probably about 3 to 4 feet in height, and I probably couldn’t get my arms around it. I have never seen a bird like this! Any ideas?
I just had about 25-30 or more Robins in my back yard. Is it strange to see them this time of year. I’m in the Ann Arbor area of Michigan?????
Maybe this is a good sign!!!
I just saw a bird in my backyard which I have never seen before. It is slightly smaller than a robin and is mostly black with a pure white belly. At the margin of tha belly and the dark body is a bright blue area about 1/2 inch wide. It is a ground feeder and has a straight yellow beak (1/2inch long) I am a real ameteur and only have a National Geographics “Birds of North America” field guide and cannot find this bird in there. Can anyone give me an identification for this bird? Thanks Dick Ampleman
By the way I live in Florissant Mo and we are on the Mississippi and Missouri fly ways.
Reggie Roan Eagle What you saw might have been a Stellers Jay.
I live in Utah and have a strange bird who has just shown up at my feeder. It has a long slightly bent beak, a lighter colored chest covered in large dark spots, and its back looks darker with almost stripes on it. It has bright red near its neck, only seen when it moves it’s neck. It also looks like it has a black band around its neck. Can anyone help me identify it?
Annette,I think you might have seen a Northern Flicker. I have also seen a bird like the one you heve described in my back yard.
From Ft Myers Fl I had a new bird to my feeder. a small very blue bird with a yellow beak, any ideas?
We found a black baby bird with a white beak with a black strip across the tip, red eyes and green feet and legs. What the heck is it?
Blondi, I believe you may have found an American Coot. Hope this helps:)
I live on the coast in mississippi for about the past 4 months there is a bird every night that shows up in the top corner of my deck. It’s small dark brown and light brown and the hair on his back looks like those of a porkepine. it’s tail is brown with black spots all over it any ideas?
I think birds are so great! I saw one today it was a “BLUEJAY!”
I saw a little yellow bird hopping around in my water oak this week, it was a very bright yellow, and about the size of a chickadee. I think it was eating bugs. I never saw the back of it, does anyone know what it could have been?
oh, yea you may want to know calcasieu parish louisiana.
I saw a large bird, aprox 3 ft with a very long tail, blue back, mostly white belly with 2 prominent curved feathers coming down in opposite directions on top of it’s head almost like an ‘M’ shape. I saw it in LA near the zoo but it did not have an ID band. I think it could be an escaped pet. I’ve never seen a bird like this in the wild. Can anyone help me try to ID it? I’m not finding any pics online that look like it. Thank you!
elle,
Sounds like a Prothonotary Warbler.
To answer Elle, I think the yellow bird would have to be a Goldfinch.
At my home in SC I have been watching a nest of Carolina Wrens that build in a box at corner of house each year. After the parent feeds one, a little wobbly baby gives the parent a small white pill of excrement to be carried away. I wonder if the babies take turns doing this amazing task.
Today they all fledged without hitting the ground. The cat would have been put up but it happened so fast with much scolding from the parents. The fledglings appeared pretty accomplished for first flights. Amazing creatures!
i just found a baby bird on the ground alive coverd in ants we got those off but now we cant tell what it is it has a yellow top beak andblack on the bottom wwhat kind is it.
it is in florida help!
hello, i just saw a HUGE bird in my yard. I live in miami. It has a LARGE beak & it was all black. it barked at me. any ideas??
Okay. Quite a few years ago a bird flew into my window and stunned itself on the glass. It was very small and green (a bright green, not like an emerald color). This was in Marysville, WA. This area is between the Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains, north of Seattle. I fell in love with this bird but left it where it was and it eventually flew away. Can anyone please help me figure out what type it was? I’ve figured out that it looks very similar to a Female Blue-Crowned Manakin, but I don’t think that’s what it would have been since the manakin’s range is much farther south than Seattle.
Thanks to anyone who can help!
i have a bird that has black wing tips a grey body ared bill and red feet if anyone knows what type of bird this is let me know please its only a baby
Hi, I have a picture of juvenile duck and I was wondering if someone can help identify the ducks, if you go to my site http://www.jessiesnaturephotography.ca and click on gallery and go to 2nd page click on birds and the photo is in the unidentified bird category. please, thanks
Need bird identification:
15′ long. Black oval shape on breast. Back brown. Long beak the size of his head. Mottled belly. When his head is tilted forward there is a red band at his neck. he was eating bugs/insects in my lawn.Viewed in New Hampshire. What is this bird?
I live in Kentucky and I saw a small flock of 5 or 6 birds stop at our pond to drink and then fly off. I can’t find them in a bird book. They have the same shape and coloring as a titmouse with a crest but they had a yellow line running behind their eyes and another yellow line running across the end of their tail feather. What could they be?
I am a classroom teacher with a small problem. Our reading textbook used a picture of a female bird to illustrate a writing prompt. The children want to know what kind of bird it is. No response from the textbook company. I have searched on the Internet. I have not been able to satisfy their curiosity. Please help.
Description:
Almost completely soft yellow on head and nape. Soft brown feathering further down back. Red-brown legs. Narrow longish black beak. Wings have brown bars. Same on tail. Nest is perfectly round and a little on the deep side. It is laying flat in the crook of a spindly tree or bush. 5 deep pink hatchlings.
Thank you so much.
M. Crosby
annyone know what this bird is i found it today while i
was walking and i could not tell what it was i’v seen alot
but they all flew but this one weird it stood for hours as i watched
and did not move.
Descripcion:it chest was the only part of its body that was white. the rest of ist body black. it legs 2-5 cm long.with black eyes.
hi
how i can adopt birdfarming as full time bussiness.
I love cockatoos but icannot keep them at home so i will buy a cockatiel
Do you like cockatoos, macaw ,cockatiel.
I just saw what looks like a giant Robin. It had a whitish breast, and stripes around its head. What is it
hello, just now in my back yard i heard a noise and looked up in an oak tree. i saw a large hawk-ish bird leave the treetop and he/she swooped down to about 20-25 feet and flew right over my head and over my house and was gone.
i say hawkish, because of his head shape. almost looked like a falcon? i dont konw. its head was white as was its underbelly. it had a long forked tail like a y. the tail was blue. very blue. i made up the name blue tailed hawk and googled it but all i got were airplanes lol.
i live on the west coast of florida. less than a mile from the ocean. the county is pasco. our climate is sub tropical. i have never seen this particular bird b4. i am 31 and have lived here since i was 3. i spend alot of time outdoors in the woods and on the oceans coast watching nature. i have seen ospreys, bald eagles and many differnt types of other hawks but never this bird before. im sorry i cant be more descriptive it was all of 5 seconds.CAN ANYONE tell me this bird based on my basic description. i figured with the tail being so long forked and blue it would be an easy answer for the pros. thank you- ryan
hello. i have solved my own riddle. it was a fork tailed hawk, swallow t ailed hawk, snake hawk and fish hawk lol- so many namaes. i found a picture and i swear its the exact bird. thank you anyway.oh
TO REET: tarpons springs is 1 mile south of me. maybe its an osprey. if you go to anclote park there you will see A bald eagle’a nest way up in the trees to the north of the boat ramp. usually there r 1 or 2 eagles if you stop n look.
saw a bird in my yard in suburban Chicago, slightly larger than a sparrow with brilliant green over bright purple body… the green trailed down the back into a wedge shape, and then the purple began…. any ideas on IDs?
we have 3 steady hummingbirds that come to the feeder the other day we got 2 more and it was like a war out there do more thn one bird feed at the same time on the feeder?
My mom saw a a bird, that we didn’t know, but showed me the picture, because she knew I love birds.
After all, it was a Northern Flicker. I love figuring out what birds are. 
Oh, and we have a American Bald Eagles’ nest across the street from our neighborhood. They are gorgeous! It was a pair, and only one juvenile. Sometimes they come into one of our trees in our neighborhood.
We also have 1-2 Ospreys visit our neighborhood. They are pretty, too.
i have found an injured bird in my yard. it is big, black, and has a duck bill beak. when my cats approached it, i could see it is bigger then the cats. i also noticed it’s wing is broken. i have called and left a message with the humane society/animal control. thank you.