Like learning a new language, there are a few key words to master. In birding, these words encompass key features:
Silhouette
Posture
Habitat
Size
Field marks
Flight Pattern
There are individual characteristics to focus your attention on first. With that information, general groups of birds will become familiar. With practice, your powers of observation will improve and species within those groups will appear.
General groups often have the same body proportions, although there may be variations in size. In identification by silhouette, pay attention to body shape, tail shape, length of bill, and proportion of head, legs and wings.
For example, everyone can tell the difference between a crow and a cardinal. A crow is large in size, has a stout body, a medium length tail and it has a heavy, strong bill. Yet a cardinal is medium in size, has a long tail, a conical bill for seed eating, and a crested head. But can everyone describe the difference between a crow and a grackle? Both are large in size but the grackle has a slender body, a long tail, and a slightly curved bill.
The next feature to place a bird in its correct group is posture. Posture characteristics include vertical or horizontal perching. Some birds will perch on a branch sitting upright with tails pointed down. These birds include flycatchers, hawks and owls. Horizontal perched birds pose with tails pointed out at an angle. Some of these birds are vireos, crows, and warblers. From a distance, crows and hawks are both large birds, but observing the different postures will provide the clues to distinguishing between them.
The next feature for consideration is habitat. Each species of birds will generally only occur within a certain community of plants and vegetation. (This aspect may get muddy during spring and fall migration, but like any new language, we start by conjugating the verbs in present tense before past and future tenses.) There are some defined expectations of pairings of birds to plants: birds have preferred food and water requirements as well as evolutionary characteristics for blending into the environment for shelter and camouflage from predators.
In Jacksonville, we have a mix of habitat: we have habitat to support a majority of shore birds and freshwater marsh birds. But our habitat also includes pockets of forest and abandoned fields and the array of birds typically found in those areas.
These three features, silhouette, posture and habitat are the easy characteristics to observe. Size, flight pattern and field marks can be more challenging to define due to the greater level of detail required. Your homework over the next month is to relax, sit still, and observe the birds. As you observe, make note of your habitat and then compare one bird against another to increase your awareness of posture and body proportions, as well as head, tail and wing characteristics.
Happy Birding!
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