I've enjoyed seeing many birds this Covid-19 Spring.  One of my favorites is the Greater Sandhill Cranes that nest near my house in NW Colorado.  I have lived in this location for 16 years and watched the pair of Sandhill Cranes come back each year to raise young.  Often they have two chicks (which I have learned they call colts) but only one this year.  I sometimes wonder if this year's pair may be one on the descendants of the original pair.  I love to hear them call in the early mornings.   I have heard a "woop woop woop" sound in the evenings for the past several years and could not figure out what it was.  I though maybe an owl, or even a frog.  This year I actually saw a "shorebird" with a long thin bill.  After looking it up on Merlin and Audubon aps, I figured out it is (actually they are - I later found a pair) Wilson Snipes!  What a cool call they have.   Early spring we saw what looked like finches (songbirds), but I couldn't ID them.  They came to our bird feeder.  About the size of goldfinches, but without the full coloration.  As we watched through the spring, the birds changed color and became yellow for the males and more distinct yellowish green for the females.  Yes, goldfinches.  I'm guessing the colors were "grayed out" during the winter.  Does anyone know if that right? Enjoying the course.

Hi all, I have been a bird watcher for as long as I can remember but have only recently started to study and try to differentiate their calls, songs, and names.  I live on Maui and my husband and I were able to see a Japanese White-Eye or Mejiro nesting in a ti leaf plant right outside our living room window.  The pair of birds nested for about 10 days and then hatched 3 babies.  For the next ten days the pair took turns feeding the three and continuing to keep them warm.  It was amazing to watch the progression from newly hatched and on to fledgling.  We watch the three take their first tentative steps and trial flights out of the nest and on to the leaves and branches of the ti leaf plant.  Within a half hour two of the three had flown off.  The third departed about 15 minutes later.  I'm sorry I don't have pictures to accompany my entry but hopefully I will become better with the camera.

I am already an avid bird watcher although most of my watching is confined to my small back yard in NC. My favorite backyard birds are the Eastern Bluebird, the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, the Carolina Wren and the Brown-Headed Nuthatch.  My favorite birds at the beach are the Great Egret, the Snowy Plover and the Sanderling. I am in the process of teaching two of my grandchildren (ages 5 and 3) about the birds and they can already identify many of the species in the backyard.  They have not mastered binoculars yet - so I am using a telephoto camera on a tripod to give them close-up views.  

Hello all! Recently I have seen a Western Grebe (waterfowl/swimming birds), a couple eagles (raptors) and several mountain bluebirds (songbirds). I was on a hike when we saw several mountain blue birds, it was very exciting! I had never seen a bluebird before and we got to see several so it was very cool! The blue colour of the male is so striking. I have two favourite birds that I see in our neigbourhood in northern Alberta: black-capped chickadees and blue jays. I love seeing the chickadees because I see them often, I love their calls, and they are social, active birds that are fun to watch. Plus they are just so cute!! I love seeing the blue jays as they have never been a resident bird in any other place I have lived before. Their bright blue colouring is very pretty and their calls are very neat. I haven't managed to get pictures of either birds as they often move too fast before I can get my phone out!

I enjoy watching birds in my yard and hope to learn more about them. I enjoy cardinals and finches especially. This year I was pleased to attract rose-breasted grosbeaks to my yard and was able to identify both the males and females. Hurray for me. I have also seen a small raptor enjoying a meal of a small rodent twice in my backyard. Not good enough a birder to be sure but I think it was a sharp shinned hawk. I once saw a female kildeer and her nest. She had picked an open space near a public garden plot I was tending. She clearly demonstrated injured bird behavior to protect her nest. Last year I had an opportunity to go on a birding foray with David Sibley in Denali National Park. He found an arctic warbler for the group. It was thrilling to see him observing and to hear him talk about our find.. Arctic warblers are only found in North America during their migration to their Alaska breeding grounds from Asia.

I saw three groups of birds today! A great blue heron (wadding bird), a Carolina wren (songbird), and a barn swallow (wasn't mentioned in any of the groups so I'm pretending it's a different one :) )

I'm excited to learn more about the lyrebird, found in Australia.  They can mimic any sound or noise, including human-made noises like car doors closing or chain saws.  Remarkable!

On the Bird Wall it reminded me how I love the common loon. I think it is beautiful and it’s call is just so soothing. The other bird I just love is the peregrine falcon. I remember when I lived in NYC a peregrine falcon was making the news living up on the skyscrapers. There are house finches that live in thick bushy trees outside my apartment. They sing so beautifully. I love to listen to them and I stop to see where he is perched.

From a trip to the Galapagos (and on the bird wall) I am fond of the Blue-footed Booby, a sea bird. They are really beautiful and easy to get fairly close to on the islands as there are no predators. I understand they engage in biparental parenting.

Activity 1: My favourite birds that I discovered on the Wall of Birds are the Great Blue Heron and the Black-necked stilt. The heron stirs up memories from my childhood when I went on a field trip to the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve in Chilliwack, B.C. These birds are majestic. As for the stilt, I love its long legs, which really do make it look like it's walking on stilts! Activity 2: The three birds I have selected are ones I have seen in my own backyard. One is most definitely a woodpecker. I think it is either a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker. The second one is a Northern Cardinal, which is part of the finch/bunting family (songbird), as I learned in this lesson. The third bird is a seagull, which I often spot flying high overhead. I can't get a close enough look to identify what type of seagull it is. I believe this belongs to the seabirds group. Activity 3: My favourite bird from my neighbourhood is the Northern Cardinal. I love the bright red plumage of the male. It was also one of the favourites of my grandfather who passed last year. Seeing the cardinal is a reminder of him.

Hello All, I’m new to birding and right now I’m limited to feeder watching in my own yard. I try to do two sightings a day, one in the morning and one in late afternoon and submit the sightings via eBird. I can identify 12 species accurately with one exception... I’m not skilled yet in identifying the females of these species. I like to be more detailed in my descriptions by including gender in my reports. Sigh! Any suggestions would be appreciated! Jimmy

Around my area, there are so many varieties of birds, especially woodpeckers! The most common one thatI saw was the Pileated Woodpecker. They always find their way to the trees in my backyard. I've also been spotting many bluebirds around here, and I think it may be a Moutain Bluebird. There are many songbirds around here that sing all day although I'm not exactly sure what type of songbirds they are. The chirps are so beautiful and cheery!

For activity 1, there were so many amazing birds that I can't even begin to list them.   I'd been seeing a Pine Warbler on my feeder for awhile, though not for the past week, I think it has flown on. There is a House Wren building a nest in our bird box. Just yesterday I saw an unsual light brown bird, it may have been a juvenile Brown-Headed Cowbird but I'm not sure   I also can't pick a favorite bird in my neighborhood, but I have been taking some pictures, like this one of a White-Breasted Nuthatch  

Here is a Pileated woodpecker. The sound is so unique it is fun to try and track them when you hear the sound far off in the distance. There are a number of different woodpeckers I've been able to find locally (Rye, NY) including pileated, downy, red-bellied and northern flicker.

The bird wall is absolutely amazing! I could explore it all day! It is hard to pick my favorite birds but I really love the Bird s of Paradise for their magnificent displays! Then I love the Bower birds for best building & displays as well! So I am really glad those birds were highlighted! I also loved that the mural incorporated the early birds from fossil evidence. I have been researching about these fossils & I would love to see on th e fossil history of birds! So thankful for the artist that created this walk if birds! A true genius! Than You!

This was a terrific look at the groups of birds I like to watch. It had never crossed my mind that juncos are a type of sparrow. Of course! The Wall of Birds is beautiful. What a fantastic interactive. I will share with my students on zoom, who have yet to awaken to the awesome diversity of birds. Thank you Ms. Kim - I'll be back to travel the world of birds. Hmmm...my favorite neighbourhood bird? Hard to say as I love them all, at different times of the year. In winter, I look for the harlequin ducks to come back from their lakeside cottages. They are so beautiful. I get a kick out of oystercatchers - they're clownish and squeaky. In the spring, I do my best to glimpse a rufous - I know they won't be in BC for long and they're exquisite. Come summer, I feel happy if I spot a brown creeper or a nuthatch scooching up a tree. Their distinctive calls are the only way I can find them. Once they give themselves away, out come the binoculars. Loving this course! Thank you.

One of my favorites is the Black-capped Chickadee. They're universally considered "super cute" (that's the scientific term) and have curious personalities. They're one of the first birds to come to a new feeder and easy to identify by sound even for new birders with their fee-bee song or the "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" alarm call. What's not to like?

Today I observed a variety of songbirds and waterfowl on the Charles River near my house: swan, mallard, robins, dove, and even a red winged blackbird from a distance. Used Merlin to identify this little guy as a common grackler, who got pretty close. You can't see it but the head was a brilliant blue!

Well sometimes the favorite bird is the one close at hand. House Finches made a nest on the Easter Wreath on the front door. What fun it was to watch them grow and fledge.  

I'm too slow for bird photography! But I've been making friends with a Grey Catbird who lives in my backyard. I think it watches me as much I watch it! It seems to be pretty bold and isnt' afraid to perch close to get an eyeful. Catbirds are...Flycatchers? Or Treecreepers? My catbird clings to the side of one of my tree hydrangeas. Maybe the answer is Other?? I think it's Other. I also have a pair of Northern Cardinals that have such gorgeoush colors. Cardinals are in the Finch/Bunting. group. And my yard borders on a wetland, so I frequently heard Red-Winged Blackbirds calling. They are, of course, in the Blackbird group, and one of the only birds I can reliably ID by sound right now because of their distinctive song.

Activity 3: I like to go to the beach with my camera to photograph birds. This is one of my personal favorites I took of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) with a fish in it's talons. This is one of my favorite birds because I find it very interesting how they can spot a fish from so high up and then successfully capture it.

Activity 1: I chose the Common Loon for its haunting sound, good looks, and for being on the Canadian dollar coin, nicknamed a "Loonie." Activity 2: From three different groups, I saw the following birds in my immediate neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada: -Northwestern Crow (Songbirds), Northern Flicker (Woodpeckers). And I heard an American Eagle (Raptors). Activity 3: My favourite local bird is the black-capped chickadee because of its beautiful song "fee-bee." I heard it for years and didn't know its source till I stumbled upon a website and heard it: https://nature-mentor.com/chickadee-calls-explained/ The other day I heard it and looked for it and found it! It made me realize how important it is to learn to identify birds by ear since often you can't see them.

One of my favorites that I commonly see in my neighborhood though, are Lesser Goldfinches. I love their machine gun songs and it's been nice having them as a permanent resident in the greenery of my complex. Here's a few photos I've taken: