The Common Merganser is an elegant-looking bird. The "common" refers to its being the most abundant of the mergansers. They have slender red bills, which are serrated to grasp slippery fish; hence the name "saw-bill"…

Somehow the word ‘common’ doesn’t fit this bird that is known for its intelligence, aerial acrobatics, and impressive repertoire of vocalizations.

Spring is the time songbirds return to our yards to breed and it’s time to start planning for the spring. While many of us enjoy birds at our feeders, we can also attract them to what we plant in our yards...

A friend once asked me what beautiful bird was it that bravely sang so melodiously, so close to him. I sighed as I told him it was the European Starling…

Fox Sparrows are brown with heavily-streaked breasts of triangular markings that merge to a central spot. The legs are pale…

Even though the Common Goldeneye has no lips it is called The Whistler, because of the sound the male's wings make in flight…

The Great Blue Heron is aptly named. It is the largest heron at 4 feet tall and has a wingspan of 7 feet…

The ethereal, flute-like song of the Hermit Thrush has inspired poets such as Whitman and Burroughs. It has been called the American nightingale…

The Killdeer is named for what its call sounds like: “Kill-dee, Kill-dee, Kill-deer!” In fact, the Latin name, Charadrius vociferus, means ‘loudly vocal plover.’

They are huge birds with wingspans of six and a half feet that spend most of their lives gliding over the ocean. They even sleep while gliding…

It has a long straight head plume instead of the pompadour of the California Quail. Its chestnut throat patch is lined by greenish white. Its chestnut sides have long white lines on them. Its chest is brown and gray and it has a very short tail. Juveniles have shorter head plumes and a white chin.

The Northern Flicker is rewardingly easy to identify with its undulating flight and its white rump patch and flashes of salmon-red on its wings and tail. This woodpecker is divided into our west-coast red-shafted flicker and the east and far-north yellow-shafted flicker. In the Great Plains you get some interesting mixes of the two.