So excited that I am able to identify some birds now.  On a nature walk in Pennsylvania with friends, I saw a red winged blackbird flew by us and heard a loud tapping sound made by a woodpecker.  I am so excited learning more and more our winded creatures.

For the 3rd activity I found the following 5 species that live in my county: gadwall, common gallinule, nanday parakeet, bells vireo, and purple finch. I am particularly surprised about the nanday parakeets. They are very colorful birds native to central south america, but there are some that live in my county. This would be a particularly fun bird to find and watch to see how it behaves in the Californian habitats.

Found the Red Cardinal found on Merlin, but the sound and other information I am having trouble finding on Merlin.  I will attempt to get better at using Merlin.  But the the location, colors, size did fine the Red Cardinal, so not all was a loss.

I completed all 3 activities. Activity 1: I tuned in to the birdcams for the (a) barred owl, (b) Panama fruit feeders, and (c) Savannah osprey. With regard to (a), the owl was sleeping [I tuned in at 9am EST], which gave me the perfect opportunity to get a long look at the design / pattern of its feathers. With regard to (b), I didn't see any birds, but the location was so beautiful, and I was excited to learn that the location is open for visitors! With regard to (c), I saw a baby in the nest. What struck me was how non-plussed it was by the sound of a nearby leafblower. Activity 2: On my way into the office this morning, I heard so much birdsong, but couldn't identify the birds. Using Merlin's "Most Likely" feature, I was able to identify three birds I was hearing: (a) robin, (b) blue jay, and (c) house finch. Activity 3: First, I have to say I was surprised by how many birds are common in my area this time of year! I chose my 5 based on their names alone: (1) white-throated sparrow*, (2) cowbird, (3) Eastern towhee, (4) killdeer*, and (5) pine siskin. The * indicates that these are birds that I have heard quite often without realizing who they were. :-)

Activity 1: Used the Merlin app to find out that brown headed and white-breasted nuthatches have visited my deck!

I live near Ventura Harbor Ecological Preserve in Ventura, California.  I regularly do Activity 1 there.  Yesterday, I saw Ruddy Ducks, American Coots, Gadwalls, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Snowy Egrets, Black-crowned Night Heron, Pied-billed Grebe,  and my find of the day, a Ring-necked Duck. Just outside the preserve stood a Great Blue Heron while a Red-tailed Hawk stood on a nearby lamppost.

Activity 3.  I did not know the the Fish Crow, Ring Billed Gull, Great Egret, Herring Gull or Northern Pintail could be found so near to where I live.  I shall be researching not only these birds, but also the location that I found on e-Bird where people have seen them.

A few days ago I saw in the Cornell lab sapsucker woods cam mourning doves, blue jays, chickaadees, cardinals, woodpeckers, and a  bird that is common and comes in groups that I do not know. In my area pass black crested ant tanagers, scaly breasted wren, house wren, golden naped tanager, and blue backed tanager I didn´t knew that

Just getting started with this group. Been watching birds at my feeders here in Athens, GA for a couple of years. Just a few minutes ago heard a barred owl call, during the day. This is unusual, I usually here him about 4 in the morning. Just recently was able to use Merlin to ID the Clay colored sparrows at my feeder. I hadn't seen them before. Hoping to connect with the local Audubon society and maybe do some field trips soon.

  Just spent 15 minutes watching the birdcam at Cornell.  I saw a woodpecker, blue jay, cardinal, crow, and this bird in the picture.  Can anyone help me identify it?

Much to my surprise, there are so many different varieties of sparrows in my neighbourhood. Some are common, some infrequent and some quite rare. Here are 3 examples. I will review their songs and compare them to determine different species. The tree sparrows are common , the chipping sparrow is common but the white crowned sparrow is apparently rare. Using Merlin, I will review their range, their song and the differentiating characteristics of these small sweeet birds

Activity 1: I did my 15 minutes watching birds at my feeder a little after 2PM today.  Clouded over with light snow.  I witnessed 6 species:  the five I am sure about was 2 Tufted Titmouse, 2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, one Downy Woodpecker, 8 Dark-eyed Juncos, and a male North Cardinal.  THere was also a sparrow, that I believe was a Tree Sparrow.  Sparrow size, burnt orange head patch.  Looking at Merlin, this bird looked closest to a Tree Sparrow. Activity 2: Merlin lists the most common to see as Black-capped chickadee, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, Dark-eyed Junco, Mourning dove, and White-breasted nuthatch.   I saw three of these species today and have seen all of these species here at my birdfeeder. Activity 3: Five species that pass through here include: Pine Siskin, Red Crossbill, Hoary redpoll, Horned Lark, and Lapland Longspur. Another less common visitor is the Snow Bunting, which I saw today in a group of 25. Interestingly, they listed the Great Blue Heron as rare.  Given the fact that I see multiple Great Blues on my way to and from work everyday when the water bodies are NOT frozen over, I find this hard to believe.  There are at least three rookeries that I know of within 10-12 miles of here and probably more that I don't know about.

I have found a spot near my house where I see a lot of birds, so I walked down there.  It was probably a bit late - there weren't all that many birds.  Did manage to see a house sparrow, though (so, at least I know the binoculars work...).  I finally got the bird pack downloaded, so I've been able to listen to it's calls, and they match, too!  (I heard it before I saw it)

I am excited to use many of the Merlin tools-I have been using the Audubon app since May and I like it and have my bird lists there, but some of the frequency charts in Merlin are so cool! I wish there was a way to share data between Merlin and Audubon so my ids could appear in both places. Anyone know if this is possible ?

I watched a webcam located in Ontario, Canada and saw what I think is a Canada Jay, based on likely birds in Merlin.  It is Robin-sized, I think, and is shaped like a Northern Cardinal or Blue Jay without the crest. It has a long tail, is gray with white on its face and neck.  The nape of the neck is darker, almost black, compared to the rest of the body.  Merlin says these birds often are in small family groups, although I did not see other such birds.  They are often found in campgrounds.   According to “All About Birds,” these birds use sticky saliva to help store foods above the snow line and this might explain why they are able to live so far north.

I kept seeing an interesting bird while kayaking in the early autumn this year. When I looked it up in the bird book, it seemed to be an American Bittern, but I had never heard of them being in our area (actually, I knew very little about them in general). I just went onto eBird and discovered several sightings of American Bitterns over the past five years, all around the Hudson River within several miles of where I had been seeing one. Now I'm pretty sure that I was correct in my identification.

LOTS of BCC, nuthatch and titmouse activity. Swarming the feeders. Fun to watch.

I watch my bird feeder every day, and I get excited whenever I see a new bird and make an ID. Today I saw a flock of little gray fluff balls swarming on my suet feeder, in constant motion. I looked them up in Merlin and it was easy to find out they were Bushtits. So cute! I’m going on a high elevation hike this weekend and I used ebird’s explore hotspots to see what’s been spotted there recently, so I’ll know what new birds to look for. A Clark’s Nutcracker and a Northern Flicker were spotted there two months ago.

Activity 1: I just decided to spend 15 minutes watching birds through my window. I saw:

• A flock of 13 dark-eyed juncos (the oregon variety). Very common here.

That's it. Not a great birding session. Don't think that there's much to write for activity 2. Activity 3:

• Mountain Bluebird
• Northern Saw-whet Owl
• American Kestrel
• Common Goldeneye
• Gadwall

1. I watched the feeder cam for the first time ever today this am as I knew I had to work later and wouldn't be able to go out, I saw many Blue Jays, gold finches, a couple downy woodpeckers, possible a hairy as the beak size looked to be a third the size of its head, a red-bellied woodpecker, many black-capped chickadees, a male and female cardinal, and for my first time ever 5 tufted titmouse, I live in Oregon so have never seen one of those and used Merlin to ID it. Does it count as a life lister if I saw it on a bird cam from my living room 3000 miles away? Haha not sure. 2. The likely birds are pretty much the birds that I have been seeing on a regular basis while birding around Portland. 3. I am having difficulty finding birds that I didn't know would be there in November as I usually look before I go using the apps, but I did discover in two areas that I have been birding all summer that the reason I am now seen golden and ruby crowned kinglets is because they aren't there in the summer and they start showing up in October haha so now I know why haha so yea learning:)

My husband and I walk in the mornings and take some pictures. Thanks to eBird and the local Bird Watchers Group we were able to identify this Gray Hawk-Juvenile Buteo plagiatus, San José, Costa Rica 7 November 2020.

Preparing my backyard for the Project Feeder Watch this past week. We have repositioned the feeders and added some pine branches to protect the feeders and are using an old Flexible Flyer Sled to add a ground feeding zone.  Also ,used the interactive Cornell Winter Feeding Web site and Bird Notes to redesign our feeding area for location, feeder type, and feed options. With our first Seasonal Snow and the above changes in place we have observed an abundance of Pine Siskins,  Gold Finches, House Finches, along with our Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays, Red breasted Nuthatches, White Breasted NutHatches, House Sparrows , Black -Capped Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers,  Red bellied Woodpecker, Red Winged Blackbirds, Mourning Doves, and our Winter Season favorite , the Dark Eyed Juncos !! Of course, with all this activity we have had frequent raids from the Coopers Hawks . And the Ground Feeding Zone has been active especially after sunset, with our some of our four legged visitors, skunk and a good looking young 4 point Buck !

I watched the Cornell Feeder Cam for a different experience from my normal feeders. 1.  I observed mostly mourning doves, and I saw several red-winged blackbirds and starlings.  The blackbirds were the most aggressive and even pushed out the northern cardinal that showed up. 2.  I definitely spotted a lot of the most like birds today.  The coolest was a turkey vulture that landed near my son and I as we were walking.  It seemed to be enjoying a meal and didn't want to leave.

Activity 2: I just positively identified the bird whose beautiful song I have loved hearing every fall and spring for so long but have never 'seen'!!!  The golden crowned sparrow!  My daughter and I watched some  at our feeder just now and were so excited to hear their song with the Merlin ap.  It is only during this time of COVID that I have been able to really watch the birds at our feeder and am so thankful for that.  We also have the birds by ear class to complete next after the Joy of Birdwatching!

Activity 2: I scrolled through the list of likely birds for Salt Lake City on Merlin and then went to my favorite birding hotspot. I spotted and was able to ID an American Coot, a pair of Downy Woodpeckers, and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. These all got added to my life list in eBird. I listened to the call of the Downy Woodpecker and recognized it as one that I had heard before, but didn't recognize until now. Activity 3: I looked at the bar chart for the Black-chinned Hummingbird and learned that they will be leaving my area soon. They must migrate to warmer climates for the winter. I see that, according to their bar charts, the Lesser and American Goldfinches stick around my area for the winter. I look forward to still finding them even during the cold winter.