The Devil's in the Details: Tips and Tricks for Learning Bird ID
By Biolit 2023
Differentiating a penguin from a parrot or a toucan from a flamingo may be easy, but many birds are not as striking or distinctive. They might be hard to see if they tend to be far from shore or high up in trees, or they might move around too much to be able to focus on smaller details. For those starting out, the overwhelming number of birds can be intimidating to those who are unsure what to look for, especially for species that look very similar. But don’t worry, that’s what we at Biodiversity Literacy are here for! Remember, we started in the same position; I certainly struggled with this at the beginning, and still do for many species (especially birds of prey, I’m still trying to wrap my head around them)!
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Personally, my bird ID skills have grown a lot since last semester. There are a few reasons why, including practice or simply the fact that I have been seeing more birds. Walking to and from classes through a small, wooded area along the Kinnessburn has definitely helped.
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But, what has really worked for me is identifying a small detail about a bird species and linking it to a memorable phrase or image. There are many aspects of a bird you can look at for a memorable detail. In terms of visuals, the easiest things to focus on at first are colour and shape.
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Once you find a bird’s characteristic that is the most unique or iconic to you, link it to something you will remember. To start off with you can skim through a guide or some images online, or just get outside and go for a walk around! Some species look very similar to others, so details can be very important. Our Facebook page, St Andrews Biodiversity Literacy Group, also has weekly posts about different bird species with details such as what they look like, where to find them, and other fun facts about their life history or conservation status.
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But, while you’re here, I’ll take you through some examples of different characteristics here to get you started. We’ll start with one of the most obvious: colour and patterning.
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Colour is one of the easiest ways to distinguish mallard females and teal females. They look very similar in many ways, but patch of colour on their wings is a key difference between the two. Teal females have a green patch, and mallard females have a blue patch bordered on two sides by white (see images below). The first teal I saw was a female, and I only noticed it was different because of the green patch. I thought: that’s an odd colour¸ before realizing it was actually a different species.
A female mallard (top) and a female teal (bottom). Photos by John Anderson.
When a bird is closer to you, smaller markings or patterns can be used to identify them. Dunnocks, for example, are fairly plain in terms of colour and are shaped much like many other birds. But, I found when taking a closer look that they tend to have a grey patch in a “C” shape on the sides of their head behind their eye. Have a look at the images below, and see if you can see the same “C” shape traced in the picture on the left in the picture on the right. While not immediately obvious, once you’ve seen it, it is a detail that is hard to miss.
Two images of dunnocks, with the grey patch traced in white on the top bird. Photos by John Anderson.
However, identifying a bird by their plumage – their feathers – is not always an option. Sometimes you may be looking a bird in the distance, with nothing but the silhouette to work with. Luckily, silhouettes can be broken down into easily recognizable shapes.
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Some birds have very distinctive heads. Goldeneyes, for example, have egg-shaped heads that can easily be spotted when their distinctive bright yellow eye – and namesake – is hard to spot. Head shape is also useful for distinguishing between similar looking species. Eiders, which usually stay closer to the shore but can venture further out, have wedge shaped triangular heads. Imagine a doorstop, and you’d be pretty close. Female eiders are a similar brown to mallard females and the blue patch on a mallard’s wing is not always visible, so using head shape is a great way to distinguish between the two. Have a look at the images below for comparison.
An eider female (top) and a mallard female (bottom). Photos by John Anderson.
Red-breasted mergansers are a great example of how a species’ appearance can be made memorable. They, as our project supervisor puts it, look like “dragony things” swimming along in the water. Take a look at the pictures below, and you’ll see what he means. They have feathery crests on their head and neck, and a thin bill that conjures up images of dragons you might see in a TV series or film, or read about in a fantasy novel.
A male (left) and female (right) red breasted merganser. Photos by John Anderson.
The head is not the only thing on a bird that can have a distinctive shape. A bird’s tail can be a good indicator as well. Corvids, or birds in the crow family, are hard to distinguish by colour and size when they are flying above your head. Rooks and carrion crows in particular are a similar size and colour and difficult to tell apart when they’re flying high above you. Until you look at the shape of their tails, that is. Rooks have a more rounded or diamond shaped end to their tail, whereas a carrion crow’s tends to be flat, ending in a blunt line. If you look at the rook (bottom) in the photos below you’ll see a clear semicircle shape on the end of their tail, very different to the straight line you can see on the crow (top).
A carrion crow (top) and a rook (bottom). Photos by John Anderson.
There are of course many other birds with many other weird and wonderful traits that set them apart from one another; this is just a short list to get you started, and, hopefully, excited to find more! I hope you have found this information helpful, and best of luck with your bird ID adventures! Want to learn more? Contact us via our Facebook at St Andrews Biodiversity Literacy Group, or our Instagram @biodiversity.literacy.
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Remember, even with knowing these details, it’s all about practice. Get out there and start looking at birds, and you’ll get faster and faster and better and better at picking out those little things that make each species unique.
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Happy Birding!