Advice for identifying Townsend’s Solitaire
Distinguish Townsend’s Solitaire from visually similar species, Northern Mockingbird and Mountain Bluebird.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Brian E. Small
Brian Small is a Los Angeles-based bird and nature photographer whose photos appear in the “ID Tips” column in every issue of BirdWatching. His work has been published in Time, The New York Times, Audubon, Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, and many other publications. His photos also illustrate many field guides, including Kenn Kaufman’s Birds of North America, a series of state bird identification guides published with the American Birding Association, and his own Eastern and Western photographic field guides to the birds of North America published in 2009 with author Paul Sterry and Princeton University Press.
Brian E. Small on social media
Identifying five specialty birds of Florida
Use these tips to identify species from the Sunshine State.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Neotropic Cormorant and Double-crested Cormorant
Use these tips and photos to distinguish between these two similar cormorant species.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Gadwall
Use these tips to classify one of the most widespread and least ornate duck species in the world.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying King Eider and Common Eider
Female and young male King Eiders are known to mix in with large flocks of Commons in winter, creating a challenge for birders.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Orchard Oriole
Use these tips to differentiate female and juvenile Orchard Orioles from other oriole species.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Snow Goose and Ross’s Goose
Use these tips to distinguish two geese species with overlapping breeding ranges.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying North America’s five titmouse species
Kenn Kaufman explains what to look for on these familiar and popular backyard birds.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Wilson’s Phalarope
How to ID the various plumages of this most distinctive member of a unique group of shorebirds.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Pygmy Nuthatch and Brown-headed Nuthatch
Use these tips to tell the difference between Pygmy Nuthatch and its close relative Brown-headed Nuthatch.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Tips for identifying American Tree Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow shares similar traits to other sparrows. Use these tips to correctly identify it.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Wandering Tattler and Spotted Sandpiper
Use these pointers to identify Wandering Tattler, a shorebird that is essentially a Pacific Coast specialty.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Tips for identifying Lucifer Hummingbird
Kenn Kaufman shares what to look for when identifying Lucifer Hummingbirds.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Snail Kite
Use these tips from Kenn Kaufman to spot Snail Kites.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Tips for identifying Bell’s Vireo
With photographs from Brian E. Small, author Kenn Kaufman provides tips for identifying Bell’s Vireo.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Frans Lanting on the art and sport of photographing birds
Read our exclusive interview with the world-renowned nature photographer.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Williamson’s Sapsucker
How to distinguish this western woodpecker from Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Gila Woodpecker.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Orange-crowned Warbler and Tennessee Warbler
Kenn Kaufman describes what to look for to identify the variable Orange-crowned Warbler and the similar Tennessee Warbler.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Henslow’s Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Baird’s Sparrow
Kenn Kaufman explains how to identify the nomadic Henslow’s Sparrow and its close relatives Grasshopper and Baird’s Sparrows.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Blue Grosbeak and Indigo Bunting
How to tell these two easily confusable species apart.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, and Cinnamon Teal
Kenn Kaufman explains how to differentiate female Blue-winged Teal from two other dabbling ducks: Cinnamon and Green-winged Teal.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Black-capped Chickadee, Carolina Chickadee
Kenn Kaufman explains how to tell Black-capped Chickadee apart from Carolina Chickadee, and he offers tips for identifying Mexican and Mountain Chickadees
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.
Identifying Swainson’s Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and Hermit Thrush
Kenn Kaufman describes how to identify three lookalike thrushes: Swainson’s Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and Hermit Thrush.
To access this content, you must purchase BirdWatching Membership.