I like this Steller's Jay that visits my back porch.

In my Nantucket neighborhood, there is a salt marsh where dozens of willets live. I love shorebirds and waders, and I especially love the willet, with its protective spirit and its beautiful white wings in flight.

For activity #2, the three bird groups I’ve seen in my Phoenix backyard are Woodpecker-Gilded Flicker, Parrot-Lovebird and Chicken-like-Gamble Quail! Beautiful!

I love all birds in the flycatcher family. They are all so acrobatic and graceful. I live in central Illinois and am thirteen years old. During spring migration this year, I spotted a vermilion flycatcher in my back yard. I was writing an essay on songbird behavior so I didn't have my camera with me. Here is one of my favorites that I photographed. This is an eastern-wood pewee. I actually managed to locate its nest and get a close look at the babies. I sat motionless, camouflaged for about thirty minutes until a female flew up. I got this picture a few days later. I am a pretty advanced birdwatcher. But since I'm self taught, I never learned some of the basic stuff. This course is very helpful to me. I am enjoying it a lot.

I have enjoyed watching and listening to the barn swallows in my neighborhood. They swoop through trees and above houses, only offering a momentary glimpse of their beauty.  

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.allaboutbirds.org%2Fguide%2FNorthern_Cardinal%2Foverview&psig=AOvVaw0FX6xa10VMs8C7HSInJRCX&ust=1594919367761000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMC7hOjfz-oCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

I am guessing this little fellow is a house sparrow. He is not a favorite but I do admire the tenacity. I live on the western. slope of Colorado and miss cardinals. Our neighborhood has mourning doves, finches, hummingbirds, golden eagles, and surprisingly, killdeer.

Here is a Beautiful Northern Cardinal. He was really in a Posing mood this day,   he sat still for quite some time, allowing me to capture a few wonderful shots before he took off.

This is a Wonderfully colorful bird found in the Sky Islands (Including Madera Canyon, AZ).   It is called the Elegant Trogon. I love the Greens, Red's and White contrasts, as well as it's interesting call, which sounds like a dog barking.   People come from long distances for a chance to see and photograph this bird.

I moved to Green Valley AZ one year ago from Minnesota.   I love the Variety and Beauty of the Birds and Hummingbirds here.    Here are a Black-headed Grosbeak and a Broad-Billed Hummingbird.

Activity #3 This is a male of Antillean Euphonia (Puerto Rican race) in my house in Puerto Rico. It is one of my favorite backyard birds because has a melodic song and their colors are awesome.  

Activity #3 Favorite backyard Ground bird is Gamble's Quail. Male will find the highest point around to make his calls, top of houses, trees, chimneys; they walk really fast and is great to see the little ones with mom, dad running around the neighborhood.

Belted kingfishers are my favorite birds that live around here. I don't see many of them but every once and awhile, when I crawl out of my house for the day, I hear this chattering sound and that's when I know there's a kingfisher at the pond. I love to see them fly, but I have never seen one fish. I would like to see them more but I'm too lazy to get out so I enjoy them when I can.

I completed the first lesson today and am so excited to further my bird interest and watching skills!  My backyard is full of birds despite it not being wooded, and being surrounded by neighbors.  I have a feeder just outside my back bay window, and so far this spring/summer I have seen 33 different species of birds!  A couple are just summer visitors to our area, so they've been exciting to spot.  There have been a variety of groups represented in the yard and at the feeder.  We had a Red-Shouldered Hawk  (Raptor) decide to enjoy its lunch in the middle of the yard, and a beautiful Common Grackle (Black Birds) stopped at the feeder.  He had a beautiful, shiny dark blue head that just makes you appreciate what nature can produce.  And rounding out the three groups is a Common Yellow-Throat Warbler (Warbler).  A common year-round favorite in my yard and neighborhood is the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.  I love it simply because the only place they are found in the wild in the United States is in St. Louis, MO and its suburbs.  There is a great history to that reason.  They are skittish little birds so combined with my photography skills that makes for blurry pictures.  They closely resemble the male house sparrow but can be slightly shorter and narrower.  Their heads are a darker brown than that on their bodies and wings- which are streaked with black and flecks of white feathers. Their bellies are a tan color. They have a black mask that flows into a black bib, and white on the sides of the head with a black mark on each side.  Hopefully I'll eventually be able to get a decent photo to share!

I'm including photos from three different groups from my backyard. From the raptors, we have a red-shouldered hawk, whom we have named Pierre, since we often see him (her?) with frogs legs hanging out of his mouth. From the songbirds (finches and buntings), we have a male goldfinch. From the hummingbirds, we have a male ruby-throated hummingbird, the only hummingbird found in my region. I live in Maryland, USA.  

We are so lucky to be housesitting our friend's home on Camano Island, north of Seattle.  The first photo is  Anna's hummingbird, which if kept fed, now spend all year in coastal areas in Washington State. My husband and I have been mesmerized watching the bald eagles feeding at high tide and soaring in the evening updrafts. The second photo has 7 eagles or (5 mature, 2 immature) I believe.  We also have ospreys and at a distance have a hard time telling the osprey from the immature eagle.  The eagles were feasting on small fish being washing into shallow water on the beach at high tide.  Lazy fishermen!  I took this photo from the very steep steps that lead to the beach.  Can't get very close at all to these big guys!

My favorite of the bird groups is the raptors.  I live on a large reservoir in the southeastern U.S.  Although I was aware that ospreys were known to nest on a shallow area of the lake near my home, until recently, I had never been able to observe one.  On a whim, I ventured out on an early morning in June to see if I might spot one.  Not only did I spot a pair nesting on a hazard marker in the middle of the lake, I was able to get close enough to get some splendid photos. What a thrill!

We are so lucky to be housesitting our friend's home on Camano Island, north of Seattle.  My husband have been mesmerized watching the bald eagles feeding at high tide and soaring in the evening updrafts.   First photo has 7 eagles or (5 mature, 2 immature) I believe.  We also have ospreys and at a distance have a hard time telling the osprey from the immature eagle.  The eagles were feasting on small fish being washing into shallow water on the beach at high tide.  Lazy fishermen!

I'm not great at getting pictures, but cardinals are my absolute favorite birds.  I lived in Western Nebraska and Colorado for most of my life and there aren't any cardinals there!  When I visited my native state of Michigan as an adult, I heard the cardinal song and was immediately struck.  Since moving here, they have been my inspiration and my comfort.  Their appearance brightens the long, snowy winters and honestly seeing them has helped pull me through what's probably Seasonal Affective Disorder!  Their physical beauty and distinctive call is their winning combo. I'm seeing lots of mallards with ducklings this time of year, which is also a joy.  A couple of weeks ago, I saw a Merganser with at least 20 little ones in tow. Hoping the herons show up soon. And, I'm making it a point to see a snowy owl this winter.

Activity 1 is incredible, I enjoyed the ancestors of modern birds as well as seeing the variety of birds on the world map. My interest in birding started with a call that I’ve never heard before and then later a siting of an owl. I spent 3 months trying to ID the owl searching owls calls on internet and reading everything about different owls. Turns out it was a northern hawk owl that is extremely uncommon in WI. Activity 2 I loved being able to take the knowledge from the lesson and apply it to my backyard visitors. Mostly songbirds and hummingbirds, but once in a while a surprise rolls in like a flock of wood ducks that were just as scared of me as I was of them 😄 Activity 3 I can’t post a picture but my favorite bird is a house wren. They sing so pretty and are quite entertaining to watch. The fact that male picks several spots for a nest and a lady makes a final choice is cute, what a gentleman.

My favorite birds are hummingbirds because I love tiny things. Three birds I've learned about because I think I've seen them around are the Long-billed Thrasher (songbird group), Mourning Dove (pigeons & doves group), and Cattle Egret (wading birds). A favorite bird that I've seen in my neighborhood is the Northern Cardinal. I love its bright color.

A Cooper's Hawk I captured through my kitchen window yesterday afternoon.

I managed to get a decent shot of this common tern while walking on one the piers in Hudson River Park, NYC. I like that it's smaller and sleeker than most of the seabirds I see, and nattily dressed too, with that black cap and red bill.

This is a comb-crested Jacana I saw at Enoggera Reservoir, Brisbane Australia.. This photo gives me a feeling it is An elegant and sophisticated bird, ready to go out to a dinner dance function, carrying its deportment aloofly.  It can appear to be able to walk on water