Favorite Bird: I am blessed to be able to live in Gloucester Massachusetts (near the Atlantic coast) and Estero (Southwest) Florida (near the Gulf Coast) and have a wide diversity of birds without any bird feeders. My favorite birds are the wading birds.  It could be my love of fishing that attracts me.  The Great White Egret is around both locations and is my favorite.  The following is a group of 3 of them on left with 4 wood storks on right and a great blue heron in the back.  They all gathered at a pond waiting for a hatch of tree frogs (I think) on the golf course.

Looking for Birds was a happy adventure.  This bald eagle landed in a tree about 200 ft from my lanai (FL for patio). I also saw a bird I had not seen before.  It is a great crested flycatcher and he/she was here to eat the bumper crop of large white moths that had come out the last week or so.

I am new to the world of birding and these chipping sparrows are my favorite to watch this spring at my feeder. I am really excited to learn more in this course- especially more about bird songs/calls. I want to be an official Birder!!!  

First sighting of a rose-breasted grosbeak today - love these

The osprey are back!!! It is so beautiful to watch them glide over the creek and they land so gracefully on their next. Their chirp is very distinctive. It is so wonderful watching them on the live cam!

I live in New Zealand and so voted for the kakapo - a large, green, flightless, nocturnal parrot (how weird is that?). The good news is that they had a very good breeding season this year and so the total number has now increased to 211.

Hi all. Enjoying this course and learning alot from these discussions; seeing a wide range of birds that we don't have here on our little island. Thanks everyone for sharing. I'm uploading a picture of our resident Wren. Beautiful, bold trilling song for a wee bird. They're probably the bird I see the most, of late, while out walking around our local reservoir in the woodlands and bushes. I notice them frequently enough, because the path is cushioned with bushes, and they cross from one side to the other (short distance) quite quickly and in a dead straight line.

family of White Winged Dove eating under my feeder.

This is a baby House Finch. I have a number of the House Finches that visit my feeders daily. They are in the Song Bird group. I also have a Red Bellied Woodpecker that visits (Woodpecker group), White-Winged Doves (Dove and Pigeon group), House Sparrows (Songbird group) Northern Cardinal, Blue Jays, Ruby Throated Hummingbirds (Hummingbird group) and other birds that enjoy my feeders.

dMy favourite birds around my neighbourhood in suburban Ottawa are the pair of cardinals but this spring this pair of doves  showed up on my patio rail.

I live in Portland, Maine, in a condo, so have no yard or feeder 🙁.  But I have a vacant lot with trees out my window which the city birds seem to like and have seen resident flocks of European starlings, along with mourning doves, a pair of northern cardinals, and a couple of blue jays.  I also look out over water so see quite a few gulls - the ones that come close enough for me to id seem to be herring gulls (can’t really spot the beaks, so there may be some ring billed in amongst them).  But the big thrill of my locked down life this week was getting to a small Audubon sanctuary 5 minutes up the road and spotting the first Eastern phoebe of the year!

I'm enjoying the course so far with so much more to learn. I've been a casual birdwatcher for years now with my children. Slowly I've been able to add to my knowledge and identification abilities (key word: slowly). The Wall of Birds was great for exploring bird types. I voted for the Red-breasted Nuthatch which is one of my favourite backyard birds. We have several who love to hang from my peanut feeder. I also love the White-breasted Nuthatch who seems a little more elusive around here in Central Ontario, Canada. I was out walking today and am almost 99% positive that I finally IDed a Cooper's Hawk soaring above my neighbourhood. Yay! I'm new to photographing birds. A few recent photos: White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Cedar Waxwing.

Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful photos and comments! I enjoyed exploring the Wall of Birds and plan to keep going back for more learning. I live in the suburbs of Washington DC and was amazed and delighted on a recent mid-day walk to see a pileated woodpecker--close to a major highway. I've also seen and heard a pair of blue jays, several mockingbirds (both of these more visible this year than last), and my ever-favorite cardinals.

I have a marshy area nearby me where I've seen this great blue heron several times, up in a tree, flying, walking along the side of the marsh. As a kayaker, I've seen these in several different locations. They are just very elegant looking birds. Concord NH along Locke Rd. trail.

What a resource!  The course, the links and YOU (my classmates!) Enjoying all the info shared and personal observations and photos.  Does take awhile to wade through the comments! Very happy to know about and bookmark the Wall of Birds, I shall return.  Upvoted a few, especially my fave—Great Blue Heron (we see one almost every time we paddle on Wisconsin rivers). As I’m also taking Cornell’s Nature Journaling and Field Sketching I’m doing drawings of birds I photograph (with new Nikon P900 “bridge” camera—24-2000mm lens, “Point-&-Wow!”)   Taking the time to get a good pose, and then study the details while rendering really helps me to remember a new bird, or deepen my appreciation for an old favorite. Whether in a sketchbook, in my notebook or on a scrap of paper (all represented here) it’s the PROCESS that’s key!

I walk around a local lake every morning and was able to identify my 3 birds on a recent walk.

• Canadian Geese, with some new babies
• Great Blue Heron
• Red Winged Blackbird - this is the bird that got me interested in birdwatching. It's song is lovely.

Activity 2: I was surprised to learn that crows are songbirds and that owls are not raptors. I thought the opposite was true- that crows were not songbirds and owls were raptors. Anyway, I recently identified a visitor to the woods behind my house as a White-throated Sparrow- a member of the songbird group:   I have also been seeing (and hearing) a Northern Flicker- a member of the woodpecker group: One morning a couple weeks ago I was awakened just before sunrise by the loud "gobble-gobble" sound of a turkey- a member of the chicken-like bird group. I was able to count five, including this male on display:

Activity 1: I enjoyed the Bird Wall and recognized birds from around the world that I had previously seen on Planet Earth and in the pages of National Geographic.  It was great to learn more about them. Osprey and Bald Eagles are some of my favorite birds to watch. Activity 2: I enjoy watching osprey fish in the pond on our farm and in the nearby river.  Like the Bald Eagle, the osprey is a bird of prey that is a very strong fast flyer and can dive to catch its prey.  Living on a farm, I also get to see Canada Geese and several different ducks.  Watching them nest and raise young is one of my favorite activities.  We have many different songbirds in our orchard and hedgerows.  I love listening to the songs of the mockingbirds and cardinals early in the morning. Activity 3: One of the birds I most enjoy watching is the gold finch.  The female is more dully colored than her mate, who is bright yellow with a black cap and wings.  They will hang upside down to feed from thistles that have gone to seed, and from tube feeders with thistle seed.  I always smile when I see them at our feeder.  They also clean up the flowers that are allowed to go to seed in our pasture and garden.

I live in the UK and during the lockdown I'm getting more time to appreciate and listen to the birds in and around my garden. I can also visit our local nature reserve where I usually volunteer on my daily exercise as it's only a short walk away. Here are some of the better photos I've taken recently, Mute Swan (Cygnus olor), Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) and a Red Kite (Milvus milvus).

In Greenwood Village, CO the male goldfinch is so brilliant yellow!  Seems a bit early for that display.

I live in the Chicago area and I have been taking a walk every morning and doing some bird watching.  Have found a lot of Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a Red Tailed Hawk’s nest (I think) and  some Song Sparrows. The warblers are arriving and yesterday I saw my first Palm Warbler.  Enjoying the class.

I have a feeder outside my home and was able to see two morning doves and two song sparrows (though I wish I could identify more specific; hope to learn how).

I live in Little Rock, Arkansas and this time of year I have some beautiful visitors passing through - rose breasted grosbeaks and Baltimore Orioles.  Right now I also have Indigo Buntings on my feeders.  But on the Interactive Map, I voted for the Blue Footed Booby because I visited the Gallpagos 3 years ago and was enchanted by these creatures.  Because everything is protected, they have no fear of you and carry on their normal activities within a few feet of visitors.  One day I witnessed 2 males vying for the affections of one female.  They flapped their bright blue feet and danced around her as she observed them, sometimes seeming quite aloof as though neither was of interest to her.  Then, unexpectedly, she walked over to one of the males and flapped her differently shaded blue feet at him and off they walked together.  They walked in my direction and the rest of the mating game took place right at my own feet.  The male demonstrated his great nesting ability by sweeping an area clear as though building her a nest.  She must have really like it because she walked up to him and draped her neck over his.  It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

I am so happy to finally be learning about the birds around me! Just in the past couple of days, I've seen amazing species (in northern Vermont), and I'd love to briefly share, even though I didn't get pictures. Yesterday, a female grouse (that had been around a couple of times eating last year's apples) climbed all the way up a maple tree, eating the red flowers as it went ever higher. It used its wing to steady itself as it sat in the branches, then awkwardly flew into the deeper woods. I can't tell if it's a Spruce Grouse or what, but I'm sure it doesn't have a crest (which would make it a Ruffed Grouse). Also yesterday, in a woody clearing, I heard a plaintive two-part chirp. Using my field guides and this site's bird song ID videos, I see that it is a Broad-winged Hawk - and one of a pair (I heard one calling back). I am thinking I don't want to spook this couple too much since they obviously are here to breed. Finally, I've seen a lot of my old friends the American Robins these days. I know they are just regular birds, but I love how they live AMONG us, not just near us. Today as I was making coffee I visited with one just outside my kitchen window. This course is making me realize that even though I don't know how to identify a lot of songbirds, I might already be a better birder than I think. I actually am familiar with lots of shore birds, and raptors, and a few woodpeckers, and so on. Looking forward to plugging in to all this information and learning a lot more!

Here in the Northeast, we have begun (well a couple weeks back) to hear the Red-wing Blackbird return (I haven't seen one yet- I live near water, but not on it), and a couple days ago I saw a Blue Jay again! The Cardinals have been with us all winter, but they seem brighter lately for some reason. Yesterday I watch two brilliantly blue-black Grackles fighting with each other... could it have been a mating dance? I don't know- but they were jumping at each other, spreading their wings and making a racket!  I learned in these lessons that the Cardinals are a different group than the Grackles but the Redwing blackbirds are in the same family as the Grackles.