Belted Kingfishers are easy to spot along waterways, perched on conspicuous branches or wires, ready to dive headfirst for their meal. Their call is a loud, dry rattle.

An odd but not uncommon sound in the night is the flat, barking ‘quork’ of the Black-crowned Night Herons as they fly to their nighttime hunting grounds along ponds, salt-water marshes and slow-moving streams.

The Black-Necked Stilt is a slender wading bird with long red legs. It forages along the edges of fresh and saltwater marshes, ponds, and tidal mudflats.

The Black Phoebe is a year-round resident and is often seen on a fence post or low branch. From there, it sallies up to snatch an insect from the air and returns to the same perch. This seven-inch flycatcher is all black except for its white belly and thin white lines down the outside of its tail…

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…