I took this picture this morning, (4-25-2020)  at the Heron Rookery, Morro Bay, California.  This is, I believe, a Snowy Egret.  The feet give it away! We have many Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets on the Central Coast of California.  Because they are fairly common, don't usually move too quickly, and are pretty striking, they are easy to identify.  As a beginning birder, it is fun to be able to instantly identify a couple of birds.  They can be quite funny to photograph, and are always stunningly beautiful.

The birds we're most familiar with in our region resonate with this course. Re Raptors: The Golden Eagle is a new favorite and a local birding expert guided us on identification during their spring migration last month. A visit to the National Eagle Center last year let us know that many are misidentified as juvenile bald eagles. Other favorites are the Common Loon (Waterfowl and the Minnesota state bird) and the Pileated Woodpecker (less elusive at Sax Zim Bog and our forested regions vs our backyard). The Wall of Birds is astounding and brought forth the array of birds from Africa----expanding our world view beyond the safari.

Activity 1 My favorites on the fantastic Wall of Birds were the Common Loon, Blue Heron and Pelican. I chose these birds because I see them in my area but I had never heard the call of a Blue Heron.  Very cool. Activity 2 I have Juncos and Black-capped chickadees (Songbirds) at my feeder and some Merlins have just returned to the  yard (Raptors). I saw my first Red-winged blackbird (Songbird) of the season yesterday. Activity 3 My favorite bird at the moment is the Bald Eagle. We have a mature pair and at least one juvenile on our farm. I haven't been able to capture a photo of the juvenile but here is one of the adults.

I am not able to access the instructional videos. I just get the short introductory one (1:17 minutes I think) . Surely there are more. I am listed as subscribed. I live in Canada. Could that be the problem? I posted a question to customer service but haven't heard back. Can anyone help me? Is anyone else having this problem?   Thanks, Birders!   Kathy

Activity 2 outdoor bird identifying.   Swimming birds/waterfowl. We live on a lake that has been frozen until the last couple of days.  All of a sudden, there was a whole flock of white birds  with dark heads and grey birds with rust colored heads swimming together on the lake.  We used our bird book and Merlin and found that they are Common Mergansers.  14 male and female.  And then Buffleheads joined them. in the afternoon, a male and female Mallard pair walked up on our shore as friendly as can be.   And of course, the ubiquitous geese cruise up and down honking away.  I really want to know what they are saying.  Just before sunset, a female Merganser caught a little fish and mayhem broke loose.  The male chased her all the way down the lake (probably three football field lengths) trying to take the fish away.  The battle was on!  To my grave disappointment, he succeeded in stealing the goodies; but what a fascinating display to watch. And another fun thing was to identify the crow ( by his flying pattern.  Flap flap flap instead of the Raven which is flap and glide.  Thrilled by the little things, I guess.

The Carolina wren has a wonderfully loud and beautiful song.  We have several in our yard and I love to hear them sing.  It's my favorite on the Wall of Birds.

I love the Wall of Birds! Can’t wait until COVID is over and can visit. Have seen hawks around the backyard recently. And of course daily woodpecker visitors (pileated, red-bellied, downy/hairy, and northern flickers a few times). Does anyone know why many woodpeckers (at least in the NE USA) have red patches on their heads? Why is this a common feature? And why red specifically? I can’t find any information online. Thanks, and hope everyone is safe! 

Hello from Berlin! i loved the wall of birds :) I remembered some of the species I miss from when I lived in Australia, the Superb Fairy Wren or the amazing Bowerbirds and the sociable Galahs. From my window I’m lucky to see shiny starlings eating from the ground, not impressed when the sparrows want to take part. They all have to go when the big bosses (hooded crows) claim the terrain. Here in Berlin tiergarten you can hear big parties of great tits, see Canadian geese and also mandarin ducks. One of the funniest ones I’ve seen lately around the city we’re two male common goldeneye ducks fighting over a lady...

I saw a brown crested fly catcher, a red-winged blackbird and a cardinal.  I also saw a scissor-tailed flycatcher yesterday.

I loved the Wall of Birds!!!  I hope I get to see it in person someday!!!  My favorite birds on the Wall was the Northern Cardinal and the Carolina Wren.  It probably because I see these birds all the time around my home and I love their songs and the Cardinal is so pretty. So the other day, I stepped out on to my deck so see what birds I could capture with my camera.  The first bird I found was a Downy Woodpecker.  He was on one of the dead trees by the creek just off my deck pecking for insects.  I then saw a duck (I think it was a Mallard) swimming in the creek but by the time I tried to take his picture he had swam around the bend of the creek and had gotten out of sight.  I am going to try and capture him (with my camera of course) another day!!!  I then saw an American Robin in my yard searching for worms.  Finally I saw 3 House Sparrows in the bushes along the side of my house.  Before now I have never tried to take photos of the birds I see but I think going forward I am going to take my camera with me when I go on my birding hikes. My favorite all-time bird is the Eastern Bluebird!!!  Although they don't live around my house, I do live at my father's house up in the Laurel Highlands mountains in Western Pennsylvania.  When I was a teenager, I planned and put together a Bluebird Trails project at my local state park to help bring the Bluebirds back to the local area.  When I saw my first Bluebird I was blown away as to how beautiful it was and it has been my favorite ever sense.  I am happy to see that the Bluebird population has improved a lot over the last 30 or so years in Southwest PA.  As far as the birds that live around my house now, I love seeing and hearing the Black-Capped Chickadee!!!  I love their songs and I think they are cute little birds!!!  The fact that they stay around all year is awesome!  I love feeding them!

Hello from the Danube Delta, Romania!     Activity 1: A very interesting project. My favorite the American White Pelican, we have also a specie of White Pelican here, in the Danube Delta. Because I'm from Europe, I observed that there  are only few birds in this area on your map :)

• Activity 1: A very interesting project. My favorite the American White Pelican, we have also a specie of White Pelican here, in the Danube Delta. Because I'm from Europe, I observed that there  are only few birds in this area on your map :)  
• Activity 2: In our yard I saw today a Great Tit(Song birds category), Feral Pingeons and few days ago some White Pelicans on the sky(don't know the category).

 

• Activity 3: I found an ineresting bird. Its my favorite at this moment. I have a picture of it on my photocam but I can't share it right now. Maybe you can help me to identify it: small size(same as a Barn Swallow), the head and the back including the tail are dark grey, the chin and the throat are black and I observed that the undertail-coverts are orange.... 

Thank you.

Chipping Sparrow?  Hope everyone is healthy and safe.

I've always loved cormorants, since reading The Story About Ping, in which cormorants are used for fishing. I find their flight profile so clean and easy to spot. The way they hold their wings to dry is also distinctive and intriguing. I know that many consider them pests, but they hold a fascination for me. With COVID-19 slowing the pace of life for so many of us, I have found that being able to be contemplative and concentrate on learning a new skill like birding is an unexpected gift. I am loving the Merlin and eBird apps as I walk ever further in my semi-rural area.

Perusing the Wall of Birds, I found my favorite to be the Phainopepla. It looks like the literal dark horse of cardinals. Its call/song reminded me a little of that of the red winged black bird - slightly annoying, but also musical. I also like the notion that the Phainopepla’s behavior/patterns are still under question - the Jekyll/Hyde description caught my attention. I’m only seeing songbirds in my backyard at the time of writing: sparrows, finches, cardinals, robins (occasional junco). I pondered on the robin, however, wondering why it’s categorized as a songbird. Following the descriptions given in the course material, I would have called it a chicken-like bird - mostly because I only ever see them walking on the ground. Do chicken-like birds never perch? I wondered whether the characteristics of how birds look are weighted in some way to cause them to be placed in one category over another. I think my favorite neighborhood bird is the cardinal. They speed through the back yard with a streak of bright red. It’s attention-getting and cool. I enjoy their morning calls, too. They call to one another from across the yard and I enjoy listening to their conversation.

Greetings from the Languedoc region of France. Activity 1: The Wall of Birds is a wonderful learning tool. I'm so happy to be able to access it online. Favorite birds are had to pick. Today, I’m going with the White-throated dipper as my favorite. This little bird feeds underwater in fast running streams, and is fascinating to watch. Activity 2: On my walk this morning, I found a number of birds in various categories: Two Red-legged partridges having a dust bath at the edge of the path (chicken-like); Black kites soaring overhead (raptor); and the colorful European goldfinch (songbird). Activity 3: My favorite neighborhood is the Eurasian Hoopoe. It has an almost magical appearance, from it’s distinctive feather crown and long, curved bill to its boldly striped wings. Their call is a distinct "hoop-hoop-hoop". I hear them often, but see them rarely.

Browsing through the Wall of Birds there are so many and hard to pick a favorite but I have to say that I do gravitate to the Carolina Wren that I see regularly in my neck of the woods...they have such personality. Here is a picture I took a few years ago of a visitor to our balcony and he left us a present!  I believe it is a Red-tailed Hawk.

Browsing through the Wall of Birds there are so many and hard to pick a favorite but I have to say that I do gravitate to the Carolina Wren that I see regularly in my neck of the woods...they have such personality. Here is a picture I took a few years ago of a visitor to our balcony and he left us a present!  I believe it is a Red-tailed Hawk.

As I just mentioned in another post, as a new birder, I've become enamored by a Belted Kingfisher on the shore of Lake Champlain in Vermont, USA. And now every time I go near the spot I first saw it, I have to check and see if it's there. It nearly always is. My wife just started birding too and I took her to see if I could show it to her and we saw TWO. I wonder if it's a nesting pair and if their nest is nearby. I keep seeing a very small bird that runs up and down the side of trees. I think it could be a Brown Creeper, but not sure. Lastly, yesterday, I saw a very small bird high up in what looked like a dead tree, going into a hole and coming out with what looked like parts of the tree. It kept doing that repeatedly. Anyone have any idea what kind of bird would do that and why?

Hi there from Australia. I live on the far south coast of New South Wales and spend many hours walking the beaches and inlets in search of shorebirds, they are my favourite group of birds. This is a family of Double banded Plovers that I managed to get a picture of while out and about. I'm really enjoying the course and look forward to gaining further understanding and knowledge of these incredible group of animals. They never cease to amaze and delight!  

My favorite bird is always whatever I'm looking at at any given moment. The most common visitors to my feeders are Anna's Hummingbirds, Northern Flickers, and Dark-eyed Juncos, with some occasional visits by House Finches and Bewick's Wrens. I love watching them all.

My favorite bird today was a turkey vulture.  I believe it may be nesting nearby.  I've heard some loud, thought stopping calls coming from the woods.  I've heard vultures nest in hollow tree trunks.  And, looking in my field guide, I see they are classified as raptors.

I have two questions that maybe someone can answer (or will be answered in future segments).  Do the bird groupings presented in this first lesson (e.g. songbirds vs. chicken-like birds, or the various groupings within songbirds) all correspond exactly to some level of taxonomy (e.g. family, genus), or do they cross taxonomies and represent more a convenient learning tool? Also, I see on the Wall of Birds some families that have representatives in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres (e.g. cranes), but some only in one hemisphere (e.g. hummingbirds).  Which is the more common situation for bird families--one or both hemispheres? Well, and related to that--why do families exist in both hemispheres?  Did they have a common ancestor before continental drift? And, those bird of paradise were the coolest, freakiest-looking creatures I have ever seen!  Haven't got any photos to share but saw a bird new to me this morning, a Great Crested Flycatcher.  AllAboutBirds helped me identify it with their sound recordings!

Wall of Birds-I don't have one favorite but I really thought it was cool to also see extinct birds and read about them, too.  Many of them were so huge! Around my neighborhood in the past week or so I've seen lots of robins, some mourning doves (a pair sat right by the window), an occasional heron, and I think some type of smaller shorebird, but I don't know which one. My favorite bird in the neighborhood right now is the robin, simply because I can almost always find one somewhere.