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In North America, the majestic, snow-white Tundra Swan was once known as the Whistling Swan. This widespread, powerful bird was named by explorer Meriwether Lewis for its whistle-like calls.

The handsome Mourning Dove is a familiar sight to most people — beige-brown above and pinkish-brown below, with black spots on its wings and an iridescent pink-and-blue flash on its neck.

The Swallow-tailed Kite is unmistakable in flight, with its long, pointed wings, deeply forked tail, and contrasting black-and-white plumage. This largest of American kites is a graceful, buoyant flier, so lightweight and maneuverable that it can capture a dragonfly mid-air.

Dark-eyed, with a scaled breast and striped belly, the Barred Owl is nearly as large as the Great Horned Owl but with different markings and no ear-tufts.

The Wood Stork has many folk names, including Wood Ibis (due to its downcurved, ibis-like bill) and flinthead (for its scaly-looking bare head). The word “wood” probably refers to the bird’s favored nesting habitat in lowland wetlands.

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird weighs less than a nickel, and like all hummingbird species including the Calliope and Rufous, it is a master of flight. Beating its wings 60 to 80 times a second, this tiny sprite creates a blur of motion and a whirring, insect-like sound.

The feisty Black-capped Chickadee is the most common and widespread of the seven chickadee species found in North America.

The flashy American Oystercatcher was once known as the “sea pie,” but it was renamed in 1731 when naturalist Mark Catesby observed the bird eating oysters. This is one of the few bird species that specializes in feeding on saltwater mollusks.

The Common Loon is the most widespread of the five loon species found in North America. A formidable swimmer and diver like the King Penguin or Red-breasted Merganser, this handsome waterbird is a veritable avian submarine, beautifully adapted to a life in and on the water.

Prominent ornithologist John James Audubon described the colorful Violet-green Swallow as “the most beautiful of all the genus hitherto discovered.”

The American Robin is one of North America’s most widespread, familiar, and well-loved songbirds.

One of North America’s smallest songbirds, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is tinier than a Black-capped Chickadee and only a bit larger than a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Unremarkable at first glance, this diminutive bird is a drab olive-green and gray, with a white eye ring and wing bars.

The steel-gray, red-capped Sandhill Crane is the most abundant of the world’s cranes. Widely distributed throughout North America, this stately bird is one of only two North American endemic crane species.

The Osprey is a large black-and-white hawk with long narrow wings, long legs, and a distinctive M-shaped flight profile.

The Northern Flicker is a standout, even in an unusual family of birds that includes the pink-and-green, flycatching Lewis’s Woodpecker and the clown-faced, nut-hoarding Acorn Woodpecker.

The active and agile Tufted Titmouse is easily recognized by its jaunty crest of gray feathers, big black eyes, and rust-colored flanks.

A burned-over forest may look lifeless and dreary to the human eye, but to the Black-backed Woodpecker, it’s a veritable welcome mat.

The Killdeer is the largest and most familiar of the “ringed” plovers, a group that includes the Piping and Wilson’s Plovers. Although classified as a shorebird, this conspicuous, double-banded species is most often found in areas far from water.

The small, sprightly Wilson’s Warbler is seemingly always in motion, flicking its wings and waggling its tail up and down and in circles.

A male Indigo Bunting in breeding plumage is a glorious symphony of shimmering blues, turquoises, and purples. But these beautiful colors are illusory: The male Indigo Bunting owes its glorious appearance to an optical trick — the diffraction of light through its feathers.

“A wonderful bird is the pelican; his bill can hold more than his belly can,” goes the limerick by Dixon Lanier Merritt. And it’s true: A pelican’s pouch can hold up to three times more than its stomach.

The Green Heron is the second smallest of the dozen heron species — including egrets and bitterns — nesting in the United States. (The Least Bittern is the smallest.) It is also one of the most widespread.

The regal-looking Canvasback is the largest North American diving duck. Its name was inspired by the male’s white back and sides, which reminded English settlers of canvas fabric.

The eye-catching Acorn Woodpecker’s head is boldly patterned in black, white, and red, punctuated with wild-looking white eyes that give it a clownish look. It’s a medium-sized bird, bigger than a Downy Woodpecker and a bit smaller than its close, but more easterly, relative the Red-headed Woodpecker.

The regal Ferruginous Hawk ranks as the biggest North American member of the genus Buteo. This species is named for the ferruginous, or rusty, color on the wings, back, and legs of light-morph individuals.

The plump, long-legged American Dipper is colored like a Gray Catbird, about the size of a Cactus Wren, and cocks its short tail like a Common Yellowthroat. But the American Dipper is unique — it’s the only North American songbird that routinely swims!

The eye-catching Long-billed Curlew is North America’s largest shorebird, but like the Mountain Plover and Buff-breasted Sandpiper, it’s very often found away from the shore.

The Barn Owl’s species name, Tyto alba, literally means “white owl.” But behind this unremarkable name is an extraordinary predator with long legs and a distinctive heart-shaped face.

The liquid, burbling “conk-a-ree!” of a male Red-winged Blackbird on territory is a sure sign of spring, or at least its pending arrival.

The confiding, acrobatic White-breasted Nuthatch delights many a backyard birder with its head-down antics and nasal calls.

The aristocratic Royal Tern is one of the largest terns in the Americas, a noticeable step up in size from the Roseate Tern or Least Tern, for example.

The handsome Red-breasted Merganser is a welcome sight along coastlines during the winter. This sea-going duck is notable for its long, red, serrated bill, which gives it the species name serrator.

Early naturalists called the Great Horned Owl the “winged tiger” or “tiger of the air” because of its ferocity and hunting skills. This big owl (the second heaviest in North America after the Snowy Owl) is also called the “hoot owl” after its deep, booming call, which sounds like: “Who’s a-wake? Me too!”

A chattering, rattling call along the river or lakeside announces the presence of a Belted Kingfisher. Often heard before seen, this dagger-billed, shaggy-crested bird is usually spotted next to a river or lake, or hovering over the water before plunging headfirst to snag a fish.

The Ruddy Turnstone is a stocky shorebird named for its habit of flipping over stones, shells, and seaweed with a slightly upturned, wedge-shaped bill.

The colorful drake Wood Duck is one of North America’s most beautiful waterfowl – an aquatic counterpart of the male Painted Bunting.

With flashing black-and-white wings and a bright red crest, when a crow-sized Pileated Woodpecker swoops by, even the most experienced birders stop in their tracks. This is the largest of North American woodpeckers. In the United States, only the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, likely extinct, was bigger.

“Everybody who notices birds at all knows, admires, and loves the graceful, friendly barn swallow,” wrote ornithologist Arthur C. Bent in the early 20th century, in his Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds.

The Peregrine Falcon has long, pointed wings, which give it a distinctive flight silhouette, even in poor lighting conditions.

Like other sparrows such as the Saltmarsh and Sagebrush, the Spotted Towhee, found from southwestern Canada through the western United States and in the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala, is the result of a taxonomic ‘split.’

About the size of a Blue Jay, the American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America.

The Song Sparrow lives up to its name, singing persistently throughout the year.

“The goldfinch is an active little bird, always in the best of spirits,” observed noted naturalist Arthur Cleveland Bent early in the 20th century.

Endangered California condor chick has successfully fledged from a cliff-side nest near the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Ventura County, California.