How to Identify Song Birds by Feather Colors

Video Transcript

"Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Peterson, and I'm the director of the Important Bird Areas Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Today, we're here at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield, Massachusetts, where we'll be talking about bird identification and some of the equipment and essential tools that are useful to get one started in this incredibly interesting pastime. We also have plumage features, for example, we describe the taxonomy or the overall topography, I should say, of the wings. And the fact that many times there are small covers called wing covers that may have little white or yellow tips to them, that produce the effect of what we call wing bars. They look like little Sargent stripes on the wings of the bird. So, the presence or absence of wing bars can be a useful thing to look at. The tail, some birds have white in the tail on the outer tail feathers or little white spots in the corners. These are features of a lot of the Warblers. And some of the Sparrows have white outer tail feathers, like the Vesper Sparrow. So, as these birds fly, the presence or absence of white markings in the tail can be important. In the case of birds like Woodpeckers, for example, the Northern Flicker has a very conspicuous white patch at the base of its rump or the top of its tail. So that as it flies, you see this great big white patch flashing similar to the white tail of a whitetail deer when they're alarmed and they're flying away from us. In the case of Bobolinks, a grassland bird, they're black underneath and then they have very distinctive buff and white markings on top and on the wings. And, the back of their neck, their nape, is sort of a honey color, a very distinctive buffy honey tone. So, these would be the kinds of features that are important to look for. And, it pays to spend some time looking through the field guide and looking at the identifying features that are specific to one group or another. So that when you see an unfamiliar bird, you can begin to get it the right category. And then, narrow down as you begin to identify very specifically what species you're looking at."