How to Identify Birds – Using a Field Guide

Features of Birding Guides and Tips for Easy Identification

Nov 25, 2008

Common Redpoll - Small, Red Forehead, Black Chin, M. L. H. Thomas

Every serious birder has a favorite field guide and knows how to use it to make quick and accurate bird identifications in the field. It's an easy skill to learn.

A beginner birder may look at a new field guide to the birds and wonder how it’s possible to single out a specific bird from the hundreds pictured. When you see a bird in the wild, how do you know where to look in the guide?

Though each published field guide tries to improve on all others, they do have consistent useful features:

Common and latin (scientific) names for species.
Colour illustrations.
Range maps showing where species are found in various seasons.
Descriptions of field marks (key features), variations in appearance, habitat, the nest, and relevant conservation status.
A description of each bird’s voice.

A field guide may also have:

Specific instructions.
Advice for birding and identification.
Recordings of bird vocalizations.
Checklists of birds.
Additional text.

Things to do Before Bird Watching

Before going birding learn the organization of the field guide and something about birds:

Learn the parts of a bird.
Pick a birding location and use the range maps, habitat information, and illustrations to determine which birds to expect. Edward Cronin suggests using a highlighter to mark local birds.
Get to know the most common birds in the area.
Learn some basic features that place a bird in a group: woodpeckers have powerful, usually long, beaks; they cling to the trunks of trees bracing themselves with their tails. Birds of prey have hooked beaks; they soar and then plunge after prey.

Using the Guide in the Field - Steps in Bird Identification

When a bird is spotted, it’s tempting to try to get a close look at it at once. Some experts, however, caution against this. Just knowing where the bird is and what it is doing is important information. As well, it’s important to narrow down the possibilities quickly. Cronin writes “Before you look, know what you’re looking for.” (p. 29):

Rule out as many groups as possible—if the bird is foraging on the beach, rule out everything but water birds, shorebirds, and wading birds. If it’s a small bird perching and singing in the forest, rule out everything but the songbirds. Turn to the right groups in the guide.
Listen for the bird’s voice.
Notice what the bird is doing, estimate its size (compare it to a familiar bird), check its body shape.
Narrow down the possibilities using knowledge of typical group features.
Remember that the bird is much more likely to be a local species than a rare wanderer—focus on local birds that are present at the relevant time of year, in the relevant habitat. At this point, the possibilities should be relatively few.
Consult the guide, then use the binoculars, looking for features that will differentiate between remaining possible species: tail and wing bars; patches of colour on the head, back, or rump; eye stripes or rings; bill shape; foot and leg characteristics. If the bird flies, some of these features along with wing shape and silhouette in flight will be easier to see.
If the answer is still not obvious, make notes and return to the problem later, perhaps with the help of an experienced local birder.

Though the process may seem daunting at first, a close knowledge of the field guide and this methodical approach will make bird identification easy in the long run.

Sources:

Birding in Metro Halifax. Stevens, Clarence. Halifax: Nimbus; 1996.

Birds of North America. Kaufman, Kenn. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Getting Started in Bird Watching. Cronin, Edward W. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Floyd, Ted. New York: HarperCollins; 2008.

The copyright of the article How to Identify Birds – Using a Field Guide in Bird Watching is owned by Rosemary Drisdelle. Permission to republish How to Identify Birds – Using a Field Guide in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.