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How To Identify Birds
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To many uninitiated persons the difficulties of identifying and recognizing birds seem insurmountable. Size, form and manner of flight tell a great deal, even before we can distinguish color. The use of their wings by birds in flight varies very greatly. The chimney swift moves its wings quite rapidly and continuously, with intervals of gliding, and they are shaped long and narrow throughout. The little hummer has long narrow wings, but they are very tiny and move so fast as to blur to the sight.
The swallow's wings are pointed and broader at the base than the swift's, nor do they move quite so fast or so irregularly. The nighthawk, "hawking" about overhead, is larger, and the long wings have a noticeable bend, with a white bar on each. The meadowlark, with short, rounded wings, flutters and sails alternately. The kingbird poises with rapidly quivering, extended wings, as does the kingfisher, but when the latter starts on, it proceeds with rather slower and more decisive flappings. Most sparrows and finches have a quick, continuous flight, with rapid wing-beats in succession and short pauses, but some, like the gold-finch, go by jerks, rising and falling in deep undulations, usually calling as they fly, as though each jerk forced air through the larynx. The woodpeckers also have a wavy flight, but they are larger, and can be readily distinguished. The warblers are slender little birds with a sort of flickering flight. The cuckoos have a rather steady, gliding progression, and a very noticeable length of tail. The blue jay's long tail attracts notice, and he progresses by a regular series of flappings. His relative, the crow, goes by a slow, regular series of separate wing-beats, but sometimes he sails, and for the moment would make one think he was a hawk, till he starts on again. Birds likewise reveal themselves through positions in standing, and in their paces or other motions. Flycatchers and bluebirds stand very erect, as do thrushes and the cedar waxwing. But the flycatcher soon reveals himself by darting out after an insect. The thrush stands still for quite a while, in the woods, unless it be a robin, while the bluebird will more likely take an apple tree, fence, or wire, and he is smaller than the robin. The waxwing has a pronounced crest and usually goes in flocks. The spry movements in the foliage will distinguish a warbler from the sedate vireo. The blackbird walks, as do the larks, starlings, pipits, oven-birds, and water thrushes, while the robin, sparrows, and others, usually hop. The fox sparrow, the thrasher and the chewink scratch away among the dead leaves, but the variegated chewink can never be mistaken for the other brown bird, nor could the fox sparrow for the big thrasher, even if he had not left for the north before the thrasher arrives. The birds that climb thereby distinguish themselves from all others. One will know that the nuthatch is not a woodpecker when he persists in running down-hill on the tree-trunk. The slender brown creeper, climbing in upward spirals, appears different from the robust woodpecker, and the black and white creeper or warbler will not be taken for the brown creeper because it is so distinctly black and white, as well as because it leaves the trunk to investigate the various branches. Extracted from:
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Binoculars For Bird Watching
Vanguard BR-8400W BR Series Binocular Bushnell 7-21x40 Powerview Zoom Binocular with InstaFocus Canon PowerShot SD450 5.0 Megapixel Digital Camera w/ 3x Zoom & 2.5 LCD Casio EX-Z1050SR 10.1 Megapixel Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.6 Wide-Format Bright LCD
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