About All-Birds

This site is all about birds.  You can find tips and information on identifying birds. You can learn about their habitats, parts and anatomies, what they eat and much more.

Find tips and advice on bird watching and attracting them to your yard.  With food, water, birdhouses, feeders and landscaping you can attract many different kinds of birds to your yard.

Why I created a website about birds.

As a boy growing up in Missoula Montana I was captivated by the ever-changing variety of colorful birds visiting our yard. We associated spring with robins hopping around our lawn searching for worms.  I can remember the first time I saw a mud and weed nest with the light blue Robin eggs in it.  It was around this time that I saw a hummingbird fly to its nest.  A tiny lichens covered nest, with two small white eggs in it.  I was fascinated, and although I did not know it, I became a bird watcher. 

Other visitors were waxwings, sparrows, House finches, Downy woodpeckers, starlings, and several kinds of hummingbirds. There were many more but these are the ones that stick in my mind.  I learned to recognize many by their musical songs and calls and even their shapes and silhouettes.

We would get huge flocks of Evening Grosbeaks that would feed on the berry trees in our yard.  They seem to especially like the Mountain Ash berries. My parents still have the yard.  I notice now that the kinds of birds coming have changed.  It has been a long time since I have seen flocks of grosbeaks there, but there are many other birds such as flickers and finches that have taken their place.

In the evening we could watch Swallows and Bats zooming through the sky catching insects.

We had many different trees in our yard and there was always a chorus of sound and color from the many different birds.

Out of the hundreds of different birds, I have chosen some of my favorites and created pages about them.  I will add more pages over time.

You can start anywhere but Bird Watching Tips is as good as any. Enjoy…

Sources for content and pictures

Most if not all information on this site is common scientific knowledge.   Much of the written content is from my own experience as a bird watcher, however I spent many hours at public libraries.   Another valuable resource is on the internet.  This is the Open Content Alliance.  The (OAC) is a group of organization that work together to make thousands of books and other materials searchable and accessible online.  Much but not all of their material is public domain.  I tried hard not to use any copyrighted material without permission.

Most of the pictures used are mine however some pictures were public domain.  If a photo was not taken by me, and I have the photographers name and other information, credit is given with the image.  If you find something of yours on this site that you would like removed please let me know.  Below is a partial list of sources I consulted.

Newer versions of many of the books below are in print.  You can find most of them in the Bird books of Amazon at low prices.

The Birds of North America.  BNA  is an online project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman 1996.
The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds  by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, Darryl Wheye 1988.
National Geographic Field Guide To The Birds Of North America, Jon L. Dunn 2006.
The SIBLEY Guide to Birds, written and illustrated by David Allen Sibley 2000.
Raptors of North America, Noel Snyder and Helen Snyder 2006.
Birds of America by John James Audubon 1967.
Birds of America , T. Gilbert Pearson editor 1936.
Handbook of North American Birds.  Edited by Ralph S. Palmer, 5 volumes.
National Geographic Complete Birds Of North America:  by Jonathan Alderfer (Editor).
The Audubon Society Encyclopedia Of North American Birds:  John K. Terres 1980.
Life Histories of North American Birds:  Edited by Arthur Bent Cleveland.  21 volumes published from 1919 to 1968.
Birds of North America, published by the American Ornithologists' Union.
A Field Guide to Western Birds by Roger Tory Peterson 1961.
A Field Guide to the Birds:  A guide to all the birds of eastern and central North America by Roger Tory Peterson 1980.
Bird Sounds and Their Meanings by Rosemary Jellis 1984
Favorite Backyard Birds by Kit and George Harrison 1983
All the Birds of North America by Jack L Griggs 1997
Nests Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds by Paul J. Baicich and Colin J.o. Harrison 2005
Field Guide to Western Birds 1961 by Tory Peterson
Birding Around the World by Aileen Lotz 1987
Birds of North America by Fred J. Alsop , Smithsonian handbooks 2001.
Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman 2000
Bird Brains by Candace Savage 1997.

Online sources:

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.  http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov

From Open Content Alliance:

The OCA is an effort by nonprofit, and governmental organizations from around the world, to build a permanent digital archive for universal use.

Again I tried not to use copyrighted material without permission.  If you find something of yours on this site that you would like removed please let me know.