Many of North Americas migratory warblers seem to lead double lives, and the Cape May Warbler is a good example. It summers in northern spruce woods, but winters in the Caribbean, where it is often ...

A small, streaky bird of open fields, the Savannah Sparrow often causes confusion for birders because it is so variable. Some of its well-marked local forms, such as the pale 'Ipswich' Sparrow of ...

One of the most numerous wading birds in Florida, and common elsewhere in the southeast. Highly sociable at all seasons, roosting and feeding in flocks, nesting in large colonies. When groups wade ...

Glossy Ibis flocks wade in the shallows of eastern marshes, probing for food with their sickle-shaped bills. Widespread in the Old World, the species is found in the New World mainly in the West ...

One of the oddest woodpeckers (and not only because of its colors, which include pink, silver, and oily green). Although it climbs trees in a typical woodpecker style, it feeds mostly by catching ...

Because of its popularity as a gamebird in Europe, the Gray Partridge was brought to North America as early as the 1790s, although it was not really established here until later. It has been most ...

The sharply-marked California Quail with the curving topknot is common along the California coast and in a few other areas of the west. It has adapted rather well to the increasing human population, ...

Aptly named, the Willow Ptarmigan is closely associated with thickets of dwarf willow on the tundra at all seasons. It occurs in isolated pairs at the beginning of the nesting season, but gathers in ...

Many of the dabbling ducks use their flat bills to strain food items from the water, but the big spatulate bill of the Northern Shoveler is adapted to take this habit to the extreme. Northern Shoveler ...

The Western Grebe is highly gregarious at all seasons, nesting in colonies and wintering in flocks. Their thin, reedy calls are characteristic sounds of western marshes in summer.

Although it is one of the smaller members in a family of very small birds, the Rufous Hummingbird is notably pugnacious. The male Rufous Hummingbird, glowing like a new copper penny, often defends a ...

The ghostly, breathy whistle of the Upland Sandpiper is one of the characteristic sounds of spring on the northern Great Plains. The bird sings sometimes from the tops of fenceposts or poles, but ...