Ben Marks, manager of bird and zoological collections, works with volunteer Marjorie David, of Chicago, in preparing birds at the Field Museum on July 27, 2016. Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune ...

About the book: Bird songs and calls are at least as important as visual field marks in identifying birds.Yet short of memorizing each bird’s repertoire, it’s difficult to sort through them all. Now, ...

Identifying a bird can be a challenge, even for experienced birders. And if you're new to using field guides, it can be daunting to figure out where to even begin searching in the hundreds of ...

Once you’ve located the proper family, use the field markings and behavior to make an ID. Minor celebration is appropriate, depending on the rarity of the bird and your blood-sugar level. Watch Next ...

Fill in some details of the bird you saw, record bird sounds on your phone and the likely species pops up. Or you can go old-school like Radtke and her daughter and order a bird field guide like ...

The drawings in both are meticulously done to reflect what the markings on the birds look like in the field. Increasingly, birders are also turning to apps like Merlin Bird ID , created by the ...