Angry Birds: Part 1 - Getting to Know Your Feathered Friends

Why are they angry? I don’t know, I don’t speak bird...yet. With the help of some great applications and online resources I may soon.  Okay, I won’t speak bird, but I will be able to identify their calls.  "Why would I care about birds?" you might ask. When we moved into our house, the people who lived here before us left a number of bird feeders.  So we filled them, and within hours our yard was full of activity (if you hang new feeders just know that it can take several months before you get regular visitors; don’t be discouraged).  Though we fail to keep our bird feeders consistently filled with seed, we get a number of different species visiting our backyard - each brings their own calls, colors, and behaviors.  Some birds are constant visitors throughout the year, and others only visit for short periods as they pass during their migration - changing with the seasons.  What I did notice was how different the birds were than those that I grew up around in Los Angeles (yes there are birds in LA; no, not just pigeons).  I wanted to learn more.

In my attempt to identify the our visitors, I found “All about Birds” by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  It has a great (and free) bird guide that allows for searching for birds by shape, name, and taxonomy. The shape search was most useful for me as I didn’t know much about bird taxonomy and was visiting the website to try and find the name.  The website has pictures of species as well as the calls/sounds they make.  One of my favorite features of this site is the inclusion of a “Similar Species” feature on the right side of the page.  It can really help for smaller birds that are more difficult to differentiate.

So now you have identified a bird. You get to feel special next time you are with friends and can identify a tufted titmouse by only its call. What more can you do with your new found knowledge?  For starters you can contribute, as a citizen scientist of sorts, your bird sightings (even birds visiting feeders on the balcony of your apartment) to eBird.  eBird is a project created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society  that attempts to better spatially and temporally characterize bird populations. There are many ways to participate, each with varying degrees of input needed (the simplest of which require no regular commitment).  Due to my busy schedule I find that I mostly submit "incidental" sightings. An incidental sighting could be something as simple as looking outside at the feeder and noting the visiting birds on eBird.

Another great way to contribute is by sharing photos that you take of birds on the web.  For example, my good friend Dustin Dovala is an excellent photographer of birds, among other things. He has been kind enough to allow us to post some of his pictures on our blog.  Despite the fact that these pictures were taken in California, all of these species can be found in Indiana.

Top Left - "A vole's worst nightmare" - Norther Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
Top Right - White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
Bottom Left - Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) Arastradero
Bottom Right - "Kestrel Takeoff", American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)

Some general issues with bird identification in general:

One thing that is difficult with all of the guides is trying to identify juvenile birds.  Often times, the juveniles have incomplete coloration and physical characteristics (lacking ornamental feathering) and are not shown in the bird guides.  It can make them difficult to ID. For example, can you pick out the juvenile male cardinal out of the pictures below? (Bird IDs at the end of this post)

I have found that watching the birds with whom they keep company can often help make the ID. The birds play an important role contributing to the changing nature of our garden throughout the seasons.  If you are having trouble identifying a bird and can snap a picture, feel free to post a link to it in the comment section below (try a publicly shared album in picasa if you don’t know how to share the image). Follow our blog for our next bird related posts: 1) how to attract certain bird species to your backyard or balcony, 2) a review of the android app ”Audubon Birds - a Field Guide” which is also available for Apple IOS.


Answer and sources of photos:
A. Adult Female Northern Cardinal (source)
B. Juvenile Male Northern  Cardinal (source)
C.Pyrrhuloxia (source)
D. Adult Male Northern Cardinal (source)