Apr 19 2025
Sandpipers are among the most fascinating—and sometimes most challenging—birds to identify. A flock feeding across a mudflat may initially look like dozens of nearly identical little brown-and-white birds. Look more carefully, however, and differences begin to emerge. One bird has yellow legs, another has black legs. One has a short, straight bill, while another carries …
Apr 17 2025
The Evening Grosbeak is one of North America’s most dramatic finches. With an oversized bill, bold white wing patches, and flashes of yellow and black, an adult male can look almost tropical when it lands at a snowy winter bird feeder. Females are more subdued, but their combination of gray, olive, yellow, black, and white …
Apr 11 2025
Discover the beauty and power of the American kestrel, a small but mighty bird of prey. Learn about their habitat, behavior, and conservation efforts in this informative article.
Mar 09 2025
Bird watching becomes a completely different experience when you can see the fine details that are impossible to appreciate with the naked eye. A distant speck suddenly becomes a Red-tailed Hawk. A tiny bird moving through the canopy reveals a bright eye ring or wing bar. Shorebirds that once seemed identical begin to show differences …
Aug 03 2024
Few birds look as though nature used quite as many colors as the Gouldian Finch. With a brilliant purple breast, golden-yellow belly, green back, turquoise collar, and a head that may be black, red, or yellow, this small Australian songbird is often described as a living rainbow. Native to the tropical savannas of northern Australia, …
Jun 09 2024
The Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) is one of the most characteristic little birds of western North America’s mountain forests. Tiny, energetic, and remarkably well adapted to cold environments, it spends much of its life among pine, fir, spruce, and other conifers. At first glance, a Mountain Chickadee looks much like several other North American chickadees: …
Jun 09 2024
Few North American birds have a lifestyle quite as extraordinary as the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus). With its bold black, white, and red plumage, pale eyes, noisy calls, and highly social personality, this western woodpecker is memorable even before you discover what it does with acorns. Instead of simply eating acorns as they find them, …
Jun 09 2024
With its jaunty forward-curving topknot, intricately patterned plumage, and habit of scurrying across the ground in groups, the California Quail (Callipepla californica) is one of the most distinctive birds of western North America. It is especially associated with California’s chaparral, oak woodlands, foothills, and brushy suburban landscapes. California Quail spend much of their lives on …
May 23 2024
The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is one of the most unusual woodpeckers in North America. Rather than excavating its nesting cavities in dead or decaying trees, this highly specialized bird makes its home almost exclusively inside living pine trees. It depends on mature, open pine forests of the southeastern United States—especially the fire-shaped longleaf pine ecosystem. Known …
May 23 2024
The Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) is one of the most spectacular songbirds of eastern North America. A breeding male can seem almost impossibly bright, with a scarlet-red body set against jet-black wings and tail. Yet despite those dramatic colors, Scarlet Tanagers can be surprisingly difficult to find. They spend much of their time high in …
