Dear Birdsquatch:

We have a bird we think is a red-headed woodpecker, but its head appears black. When I look at it through my binoculars, I can make out some very dark red on its head, along with the black, but the head appears to be shades of maroon to black. What is this bird?

—Aneita G., Petersburg, Illinois

One of the most widely distributed warblers in North America, the yellow warbler is sweet-sweet-sweeter-than-sweet in its unmistakable red-streaked yellow plumage. If you know when to look, you might even see one in your own backyard! Here are some interesting tidbits about these the lives and behavior of these birds.

Do you have have a screech-owl living in your yard or neighborhood? You might! Unless you know what to look and listen for, you may not be aware of a screech-owl living in or near your backyard.

The two common "red" finches that visit bird feeders all over North America are the purple finch and the house finch. Of these two, the house finch is the more common. It is also the more commonly misidentified because its plumage can vary from dull red to bright orange.

Except for northern Canada and inland Alaska, song sparrows can be found throughout North America during some part of the year, and they are common denizens of backyards—especially under bird feeders. In the Northeast and most of the West, song sparrow is a year-round resident, but across southern Canada and the north-central states, the species is a summer breeder that heads south for the colder months.

Nuthatches are some of the most adorable birds in North America! Want the lowdown on these birds—including what species to expect in your area, and how to attract them to your yard? We have the facts!

I could be forgiven, being a lifelong Baltimorian and a serious baseball fan, for having a special affection for orioles, but I am not alone. For many bird watchers, the return of orioles in the spring is a special moment. It is not just that orioles are beautiful, the males a palette of rich oranges, yellows, and blacks, or that their song, familiar and resonant, rings across the landscape. It is that no matter where you live in North America, you have a chance of seeing one.

Redpolls spend the summer nesting in the forests of Alaska and northern Canada. As winter rolls around, you may spot redpolls visiting your feeders, especially if you live in the states along the Canadian border. About every two years, these foraging finches will irrupt farther south, extending their territory toward Interstate 40.

Dear Birdsquatch: Do you have any ideas on how to keep Nyjer/thistle seed dry when it rains or snows? Thanks.

—Martin S., Yorktown Heights, New York

Did You Know? Most woodpeckers have an X-shaped footprint. Also, they have nostril feathers to prevent inhalation of wood particles as they chisel.

A lot of bird watchers and non-bird watchers alike have spent time peering into a thicket, trying to persuade the poor lost kitten pitifully mewing in the brush to come out. Even those who are familiar with the catbird have been fooled at times. The soft mew of the gray catbird is so realistic that sometimes the brain just won't accept that it is not a cat.

If you're flipping through a field guide or browsing through a quick internet image search, it can be hard to tell the difference between North America's two waxwing species. They both have distinctive crests, black masks, bodies in shades of brown and gray, red-tipped secondaries, and yellow-tipped tailfeathers. However, if you look just a little bit closer, you can distinguish cedar waxwings from their bohemian cousins fairly easily.

Many bird watchers think of warblers as beautiful but elusive little birds, easiest to spot in the spring as they announce their return with song. But there's one species of warbler that remains across most of North America even when temperatures plummet and snow flies.

Are there pine siskins at your thistle feeder? They're easy to overlook, since they are streaky brown, like female house and purple finches, but have wing bars like an American goldfinch. They often turn up in flocks with their finch cousins, and blend in, unnoticed. Keep an eye out for a small, finely streaked finch with yellow at the base of a notched tail.

For WBB Managing Editor Dawn Hewitt, the Baltimore oriole was the first bird that took her breath away. It was the first invisible bird that, once pointed out to her, caused her jaw to drop. It was the bird that gave her a clue that she was overlooking and missing out on spectacular beauty in the natural world.

Ah, the confusing baby birds of spring! Baby birds often look only a tiny bit like their parents' adult plumage, so it's easy to get confused when an unfamiliar feathered critter shows up in the backyard. Here are two of the most confusing juveniles.

If the habitat of your yard and neighborhood is suitable—with tall trees and shrubs—it is likely that warblers will be passing through very soon, so start watching for warblers in your yard.

A pileated woodpecker at my feeder! I was thrilled! Someone had given me a homemade suet feeder with a tail-prop design. A few months after hanging it in my yard (and keeping it continually stocked with suet), a pileated woodpecker showed up. My neighborhood was heavily forested with big, old trees, and I frequently heard their calls and occasionally saw them overhead and in the trees. Having one at my feeder was an exciting first.

Are the chickadees at your feeder Carolina or black-capped? Carolina and black-capped chickadees are nearly identical.

It's time to start looking for a true sign of spring: chipping sparrows in their breeding finery foraging under your birdfeeders. Don't overlook the subtle beauty of this common backyard bird. It nests across most of North America.

If you feed birds, you probably feed mourning doves. Mourning doves are North America's most common and widespread native dove species, named for its mournful cooing: coo-AHH-coo,coo,coo, sometimes confused for an owl.

Contributor Cathy Priebe admits that some of the little brown birds at her feeders are challenging for her to identify. But once she noticed the distinguishing features and behavior of the winter-only American tree sparrow, she was smitten.

Five species of titmice reside in North America, and they're all adorable. Along with their cousins the chickadees, titmice are the watchdogs of the woodlot and backyard, alerting other birds to danger. When they sound especially agitated it’s a good bet that they’ve located a predator, such as an owl, hawk, snake, cat, or fox.

A beady, insect-like trill first alerts many bird watchers to the presence of cedar waxwings, as they tend to completely blend into the surrounding foliage. These wandering fruit eaters appear and disappear seemingly without rhyme or reason, descending to strip a tree of its fruits and then whirling off to parts unknown. Fermented fruits sometimes cause entire flocks of waxwings to stagger about on the ground until their intoxication wears off.

Mockingbirds are loud, persistent singers and they have a habit of singing all night long. With a suspicious genius they usually choose the corner of the house right over the master bedroom. Even if you close the window the sound penetrates. It would be OK if the song were melodious. Sounds of birds and nature, when sufficiently soft and rhythmic, can be sleep inducers. But the mockingbird’s song is neither soft nor melodious. The mocker is a mimic extraordinaire, incorporating not only the songs of other birds, but also the sounds of the neighborhood.

A close look at chipping sparrows reveals much to admire in its quiet and confiding ways. As common as they are around backyards and parks, we know surprisingly little about their mating habits. One Ontario study showed males not to be monogamous, as assumed, but to mate freely. These birds have the interesting habit of lining their nests with animal hair. They'll also use human hair, but more on that later.

American goldfinches are brightening feeder-filled backyards, weedy fields, and grassy meadows all over North America. In fact, 48 states and 9 provinces host the black-and-yellow birds for at least part of the year. Generally speaking, southern Canada has them during summer; the southern United States has them during winter; and the northern United States has them year-round.

Noisy and sociable, tame around humans, the tufted titmouse is a fascinating little bird. Learn how to attract it to your backyard, and how to identify it when it arrives.

North America's largest common woodpecker, the pileated woodpecker is a magnificent, flashy, loud, but shy bird. The word "pileated" is Latin for "crested," a reference to this woodpecker's remarkable crest.

For many of us, winter is the only time we have dark-eyed juncos around. They form large flocks in backyards, parks, and pastures, and along rural roadsides and woodland edges in just about every corner of the United States except southern Florida. Watch for the flash of white from their tail feathers as they dart between brush piles or scatter from feeding on the ground beneath a bird feeder.

Creeping along pine branches like a tiny mechanical toy, the red-breasted nuthatch is looking for seeds and for insects, spiders, and other edible morsels. Its small size and preference for northern coniferous forests may make it a less familiar sight to many backyard bird watchers.

Can you identify the owl above? Eastern and western screech-owls are nearly identical. Until 1983, they were thought to be the same species. DNA tests showed they are not.

A common and widespread bird in the forests of the mountain West, the mountain chickadee prefers to live in or near conifers. Like its chickadee relatives, the mountain chickadee is active and noisy as it forages high in the tall trees, often in mixed flocks with other species.

The barn swallow is named for its preferred nesting location of barns. This species seems to define what it means to be at home in the air. One early naturalist estimated that a barn swallow that lived ten years would fly more than two million miles, enough to travel eighty-seven times around the earth.

If you live in eastern North America, now is a great time to be watching for rose-breasted grosbeaks in your backyard. These colorful, cardinal-sized songbirds pass through backyards across the southeastern United States en route to their breeding grounds farther north. They spend the winters in the Neotropics and fly across the Gulf of Mexico each spring to breed.

A familiar and fairly large (13 inches long) woodpecker, the northern flicker is a distinctively marked bird that—unlike other woodpeckers—is often seen foraging on the ground. The eastern form of the flicker is known as the yellow-shafted flicker for its bright lemon yellow underwing and tail color. A red-shafted form of the northern flicker occurs in the West. There are more than 130 different names by which the flicker is known, including high-hole, yellowhammer, and yawkerbird.

Spring warbler watching means calling up information that has been stored, unused in the memory banks, for nearly a year. This article is designed as an exercise to stretch and warm up the mental muscles in preparation for the coming waves. When you have the right mindset, you will be amazed by how quickly you remember.

No matter where in North America you reside, chances are that you're enjoying (or are about to enjoy) the warmer temperatures of spring. This also means you're noticing (or are about to notice) changes in the birds in your backyard. Here are a few of the many interesting species to watch for in birdy backyards across the continent this spring.

Even though hundreds or even thousands of chimney swifts drop into a single chimney to roost at dusk during fall migration, that chimney will host only one chimney swift nest during breeding season. Chimney swifts are not colonial nesters, although a breeding pair will permit unmated swifts to roost in "their" chimney while nesting is active.

The two common "red" finches that visit bird feeders all over North America are the purple finch and the house finch. Of these two, the house finch is the more common. It is also the more commonly misidentified because its plumage can vary from dull red to bright orange.

You may not think of turkeys, quail, and other upland gamebirds as backyard birds, but in many areas of North America, birders can easily lure these species to their backyard feeding stations.

A scuffling caught my eye one day, and a flash of orange. Orange? The only orange bird I'd had in the yard was a black-headed grosbeak, but this bird didn't have nearly enough orange on it, and the grosbeaks don't tend to forage on the ground. This bird was decidedly a ground-forager, for there is no sky view outside my basement office window—just an eye-level patch of perpetually damp dirt under thick, low evergreens where I occasionally toss a handful of hulled sunflower seeds to give the California quail, dark-eyed juncos, and house sparrows a treat.

Putting names on birds can always be challenging, but it seems to be especially so during late summer and fall, when juvenile birds and non-breeding plumages shake things up a bit. As you consult your favorite field guide this season, keep these tips in mind.

I still have trouble at times telling the difference between a sharp-shinned hawk and a Cooper's hawk. So if you do, too, you're not alone! I've read a number of resources to help differentiate them, and just when I think I have it down, I see one that I can't quite identify with certainty.

Backyard bird watchers from more than 100 countries made history this past winter in the first global Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). In the largest worldwide bird count ever, bird watchers counted more than 25 million birds on 116,000 online checklists, recording more than 3,500 species. That's one-third of the world's total bird species.

I remember well the first painted bunting I ever laid eyes on. The memory is fresh. My buddy and I were hiking along a dirt trail just outside of Dallas, Texas, on a particularly hot midsummer afternoon. 'Twas my first time exploring the Lone Star State. Mississippi kites circled overhead and greater roadrunners scurried along the ground. Having spent most of my life up to that point in southern Ohio, I was easily distracted but such exotic creatures. The armadillos were especially fascinating, as were the cacti. I paused to snap a photo, and that's when I heard it: a sharp pik!