But we can often identify the bird we are looking at just because, when we see any animal we don't know, we consult our references and try to add it to our fount of general knowledge. If you live long enough, you can accumulate an amazing amount of arcane information that most people just don't care about and whose eyes glaze over if you raise the issue with them.
So, the following photos represent birds I encountered and recorded just because I thought they were interesting and/or beautiful. This is not intended to be a field guide to help you ID whatever that was that showed up at your backyard feeder. There are much better resources for that at the library or in books at Amazon or any number of birding websites that you would find way more informative.
If you are a birder yourself and feel that I have misidentified something, please make a correction in the comment section at the end of this post.
By the way, the photos are arranged in no particular order and there has been no attempt to place birds of a feather all together. See your field guide for taxonomy. These are just travel photos taken when I happened to see something I found fascinating. For that matter, you may not find all photos of a particular species grouped together. This ain't science, folks. It's just a bunch of photos you might enjoy. Have a look.
Clark's nutcracker
Brown pelicans among the gulls
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White pelicans feed on the surface. Browns tend to dive after spotting prey from the air.
Ibis
Juvenile ibis
Glossy ibis
Great egret with walking catfish.
Harris's hawk, noteworthy for cooperative hunting like a pack of wolves.
You don't have to be a birder to recognize a bald eagle.
Or even an osprey
Kestrel or sparrow hawk
Verdin
Hooded oriole
Somehow, even ordinary finches seem more interesting
when you are 2,000 miles from home.
Same goes for little white-crowned sparrows.
Brown crested flycatcher
Anhinga feathers have no oil for buoyancy, which helps them pursue fish underwater, but they must periodically dry themselves in the sun.
Black chinned hummingbird
Little blue heron
Roseate spoonbill
Shirley's favorite--the purple gallinule
The American bittern is so well camouflaged that some people can't see it even when it is pointed out to them. (Or, perhaps, they would just prefer to keep walking.)
Black crowned night heron
Stellers jay
Magpie with grasshopper
I believe these are juvenile mergansers. Note in the Comment section if you have a better guess.
Brown crested flycatcher again
Towhee
Sharp shinned hawk
Pied billed grebe
Sora rail
Grouse feeding in serviceberry tree
Hairy woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker
Green jays in the tip of Texas
" Are you a bird watcher?" he asked. "What's that big black bird that looks like a vulture?"
"Well," I said, "we call that a black vulture, not to be confused with the turkey vulture that has a red head." I think vultures prove that everything is beautiful in its own way.
Anhinga again
During the breeding season, the male's eye takes on a definite turquoise hue.
The female has a buff-gray neck and breast.
The green heron fishes from a low branch, leaning forward and grasping its prey. Often it does this without even leaving its perch.
It should be obvious why the purple gallinule is Shirley's favorite.
Long toes distribute its weight so the gallinule can easily walk on lily pads.
The common gallinule is far less colorful.
The great white egret
The snowy egret is identified by her "golden slippers."
This sharp shinned hawk seemed curious about what we were having for breakfast.
Great blue heron
Groove billed ani
Glossy ibis
When we hear a mockingbird, we know we must be someplace nice.
Anhinga chicks grow almost as big as their parents before they have their first true feathers.
Perhaps they grow fast because they so urgently insist on being fed.
"Don't hold out on me. I know there must a fish in there someplace."
Kingfisher
Phoebe sings her own name.
Mountain bluebird
Young bluebirds just getting their color
This barred owl was protecting her chick from harassment by crows.
The chick, still not fledged, was having difficulty avoiding them.
Wood stork
Most young animals tend to be attractive. It may be a survival mechanism. But juvenile storks are among those that seem even less handsome than their parents. Still, in flight the adults manage to look graceful and simply amazing.
The curved bill thrasher, a western cousin of the mockingbird, also sings a selection of other bird songs.
Beep, beep! Roadrunner
Black chinned hummingbird
Yes, I know, it's just an ordinary cardinal. Still, for Dorothy and Mary from British Columbia, seeing one in southern Arizona was a huge treat. The lesson seems to be, don't take any form of beauty for granted just because it is readily available.
Tri-colored heron
Gila woodpecker
Gambel's quail
The raven is to a crow as a Clydesdale is to a Shetland pony.
Killdeer often try feign injury to decoy threats away from their chicks. This one insisted on staying on her nest.
Bald eagle, of course.
We were impressed when this eagle perched over our campsite. When there were dozens of them down on the beach, we concluded that a single eagle is no big deal.
Puffins
Limpkin
Chicks
A nesting pair of ospreys
Trumpeter swans
An extremely rare two-headed swan
Long billed curlew
Snow geese
Sandhill cranes are the exception to our rule against going someplace to just to see a specific bird species. More precisely, we go to see 20 or 30,000 of them overwintering in Arizona. But it is really not out of our way because we are doing the same thing.
They spend nights standing in the lake as a defense against predators.
Pintail duck
Redhead
Royal terns. I admire them for their DA haircuts.
Caracara or Mexican eagle
Phainopepla
The female phainopepla was taking turns sitting on the nest with her mate.
We have seen increasing numbers of wild turkeys in recent years.
Sandpipers
Willet
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