Creating Your Backyard Field Guide

Sketching (or photographing) and writing about the birds in your backyard will help you recognize and remember your wild neighbors!
While you have a bird in view, keep watching, making notes, and taking photographs or sketching. You can look for the bird’s species in a published field guide later, using the field guide page you create to find the most likely match. Here are a few things to notice:
 

• Shape: Is the bird bulky or slender? Long- or short-legged? What shape and length is the bill? Answering a few such questions will help you narrow down which general group of birds to look through in a field guide for your area.

• Size: After deciding the group to which a bird belongs, notice its size in relation to nearby objects to help narrow down the possible species it may be.

• Field marks: Look for colors and patterns on the bird’s head, body, wings, and tail. What colors are the bill, legs, and feet? These field marks further help you identify the bird.

• Posture: Some birds hold themselves upright; others have a horizontal posture. How does the bird perch and stand?

• Behavior: Is the bird feeding on the ground? Or foraging for insects in a tree? Describe any interesting things you see the bird do.

• Sounds: Try to notice whether the bird calls or sings and how it sounds. Having a picture of the bird in your mind to match the sound will help you remember the sighting so you’ll know to look for the species other times and places. Birds are often heard before they are seen!

Enjoy watching your backyard birds, and take time to share the fun with a friend!

Click here to download pages to take along on your next nature hike!