Often shown in documentaries about the Galapagos, where pairs bow and shuffle and show off their blue feet, the Blue-footed Booby also nests as far north as western Mexico. In some years, small ...

In the arid southwest, the Common Black Hawk is limited to the edges of flowing streams. A bulky bird, with very broad wings, short tail, and long legs, it usually hunts low along streams, even wading ...

Abundant in the southeast and scarce in the southwest. The Black Vulture is a broad-winged scavenger, in low flight, it proceeds with several quick flaps followed by a flat-winged glide; when rising ...

The smallest of our bird-hunting Accipiter hawks, this one is also the most migratory, breeding north to treeline in Alaska and Canada and wintering south to Panama. It is during migration that the ...

The Western Screech-Owl is inconspicuous but locally very common. In the varied terrain of the west, its haunts range from coastal forests in southeastern Alaska to cactus groves in the Arizona desert ...

A rather mysterious owl of dense northern woodlands. Except when calling at night in very early spring, it is easily overlooked. Until the 1970s the Boreal Owl was not known to breed anywhere south of ...

Very widespread in North America, this melodious sparrow is among the most familiar birds in some areas, such as the Northeast and Midwest. At times it is rather skulking in behavior, hiding in the ...

Birders might say that this blackbird is rusty because it spends so much time in the water. In migration and winter the Rusty Blackbird is usually in swampy places, wading in very shallow water at the ...

One of the most widespread and abundant songbirds in the world today, the House Sparrow has a simple success formula: it associates with humans. Native to Eurasia and northern Africa, it has succeeded ...

This large, long-tailed parakeet is native to dry forest and scrubby habitats in several parts of South America. The Blue-crowned Parakeet has escaped from captivity and established feral populations ...

In open terrain, this predatory songbird watches from a wire or other high perch, then pounces on its prey: often a large insect, sometimes a small bird or a rodent. The Loggerhead Shrike is gradually ...

On open fields in winter, Horned Lark flocks walk and run on the ground, examining the soil and stubble in search of seeds. If disturbed, the flock makes away in swift, twisting flight, making soft ...