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 ...

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 southeastern swamps in summer, this bright golden warbler sings from high in the trees. The Prothonotary Warbler is unique among eastern warblers in its habit of nesting in holes in trees, rather ...

The haunting songs of the Varied Thrush echo through the dense humid forests of the Pacific Northwest. Long minor-key whistles repeated after deliberate pauses, they seem like sounds without a source; ...

This trim, elegant falcon once nested in desert grassland of the southwest, but the Aplomado Falcon has been very rare north of the Mexican border since the 1920s or before. Recently a few have ...

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 ...

Quiet and unobtrusive, the Common Ground Dove walks on the ground in open bushy places in the southern states. If it is startled, it flies up into the brush with a fluttering rattle, showing a short ...

The Yellow Rail is one of the most secretive birds in North America, almost never seen under normal conditions, although its metallic clicking calls may echo across the northern prairie marshes on ...

A clattering cackle in the salt marsh is often our first clue to the presence of this big rail. The Clapper Rail is usually hidden in dense cover, but sometimes we see it stalking boldly along the ...

Species like Roseate Spoonbills and American Flamingos are unforgettable. Learn to identify every pink bird you might spot in ...

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 flat-headed, short-tailed little sparrow of the fields, the Grasshopper Sparrow may go unnoticed even when it is singing, because its song is much like the buzz of a grasshopper. The birder who ...