The Blue Grouse is the common resident grouse of our mountains. In early spring, while there is still snow on the ground you can hear their courtship hooting.

Everyone has seen Brewer’s Blackbirds. They are in parks, fields, and parking lots. They are the birds that peck bugs from your car bumper…

Everyone recognizes the Brown Pelican. It’s that four-foot bird on the coast with that giant bill. At eighteen inches the Brown Pelican has one of the longest bills of any bird…

The Bufflehead is a small duck that is easily recognized by the male’s huge white patch on the back of his head. They are winter visitors here to enjoy our mild weather compared to the frozen north where they return to nest in spring…

The California Gull breeds around Mono Lake but spends so much of its time in Utah that it’s the state bird. A Salt Lake City monument honors California Gulls because the birds twice saved crops of Mormon settlers from grasshopper plagues…

The Canvasback duck can be recognized from a distance by its Roman profile. They show a continuous line from their dramatic sloping foreheads down to their large dark bills…

When I hear their soft-pitched trill whistle, I quickly look up in the tops of the trees for the gentle Cedar Waxwings. They are silky, sleek fawn-colored birds with a prominent crest and striking black band through their eye…

These are the famous swallows of San Juan Capistrano whose return has been recorded around March 19 since 1775. They winter in Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina…

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…