If it looks like a sandpiper, acts like a sandpiper and flies like a sandpiper it must be a sandpiper, except when it’s a duck. There is only one duck that regularly and artfully pulls off a sandpiper impersonation: the Green-winged Teal. Green-winged Teal frequently forage on mudflats, busily poking […]

Something new to look at on juvenile night-herons? Adult Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night-Herons look quite different, rarely presenting an identification challenge. Juvenile night-herons on the other hand can be challenging if you don’t know what to look for. There are a number of well-known differences. Yellow-crowned have longer legs and […]

As winter approaches, birders in North America will soon be confronted with the identification challenge of separating Snow Geese from Ross’s Geese. Typically this is pretty easy, but the small numbers of Snow X Ross’s goose hybrids that exist add an additional layer of difficulty. In this photo, we have […]

Like many species of waterbirds, shorebirds often fly in mixed flocks. Call me crazy, but looking through a mixed flock of fast-moving birds trying to sort out all the species involved is one of my favorite things to do. It can be quite a challenging exercise and requires concentration, stable […]

I was out at Tybee Island, Georgia over the weekend and was able to get some good comparison shots of Royal and Caspian Terns. These are the two largest terns in North America (Caspian is the largest tern in the world), and though they are quite different, they can still […]