(Part 2) Top products from r/whatsthisbird

I like Sibley a lot, too, but I also have a soft spot for the Stokes guides because they have photos and not illustrations, and I always found the photos easier to use to ID.

The Merlin app is great. I also like the Audubon Bird app, because it has a great search feature where you can put in the location, colors, size, etc of a bird you don't know and it will come up with a list of things it could be.

For raptors, I LOVE the Crossley ID Guide because it has dozens of photos of each raptor from different angles and distances, both in flight and sitting. It's perfect for a beginner at raptor ID.

They're extremely different! For starters, a Red-tailed Hawk is a buteo. Big rounded head, broad shoulders, medium-length tail, thick legs and big feet. Merlins are falcons so they're long and slender with long tails, and thin but very long toes.

Additionally, the coloration on these two birds is totally different. Red-tailed Hawks are super variable, admittedly, but they never have this gray tone to the back - rather, various shades of brown and sometimes slightly gold, with white-mottled scapulars. Most Redtails will also have an apparent belly band pattern - clear whitish breast, dark feathers across the lower belly, and then whitish or very slightly streaked leg feathers.

I'd recommend familiarizing yourself first with the general shape differences between buteos, accipiters, and falcons, as well as a handful of oddities like harriers, kites, and osprey. Eagles are kind of their own set of weird things but if you can figure out the first three on sight then you can look closer when something doesn't fit one of those. And when it does, you can then narrow down into which buteo, accipiter, or falcon you have based on finer plumage and habitat details.

A really good book to check out, if you're interested in raptor ID, is Hawks in Flight. It's a perfect primer to figuring these guys out.

well those two things are pretty much what I used 😅

I busted out this 750 page monstrosity, found a decent match, and then compared it to sightings on eBird for Pichincha Province, where Mindo is. Luckily Mindo (and Ecuador in general) is pretty well covered by eBird, and Buff-tailed Coronet is pretty common in the area.

If both you and your girlfriend like watching birds in your area, i suggest buying a bird book to encourage your interests. It's a lifelong hobby that only gets more interesting as time passes. I'm sure others will have their own favorite, but my suggestion is:

National Geographic Birds of North America

Good luck!

I own and use the guide by Garrigues and Dean. I didn't look at any other books when I bought it, because I was a 7th grader and foolishly forgot to buy a field guide before I went on the trip. It was the only quality, english guide I could find at the time. The book is lightweight and very traveler-friendly, and although the pictures tend to be somewhat dim, they generally provide enough accuracy to make good comparisons. The range maps are also very useful and appear to be quality, and very rare birds are for the most part still included. Based on the Amazon reviews, I think most other people agree that this is the best traveler's field guide for Costa Rica available at the time.

General field guides like Sibleys and Petersons probably are going to have to generalize a bit on shorebirds which can be pretty complex. I've been using this book which has been super informative!

This one is regarded as the best book for general bird identification in europe http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Europe-Second-Edition-Princeton/dp/0691143927

and this one is more specific and takes on the Sylvia-warbler familiy like Subalpine Warbler, Sardinian Warbler Ruepells Warbler and such http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sylvia-Warblers-Identification-Taxonomy-Phylogeny/dp/0713639849

Also regarding #2 picture, a Blackcap would show a much more distinct brown-coloured cap and would be more bulky. This show an Blackcap 1cy http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=56273&language=uk, http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=23434, http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=35937

The enormous "fingers" are a useful clue for identifying eagles. I like this book for learning my raptors https://www.amazon.com/Hawks-Distance-Identification-Migrant-Raptors/dp/0691135592

I love the Sibley guides, and also make heavy use of the iBird app

Where are you? My daughter got me this raptors of NA book for Christmas. It's really good.

Not falco, but these are my faves:

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Warblers-America-Peterson-Guides/dp/0395783216/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410889739&sr=8-2&keywords=warbler+guide

http://www.amazon.com/The-Warbler-Guide-Tom-Stephenson/dp/0691154821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410889730&sr=8-1&keywords=warbler+guide

Also, hello from another Northern Ohio birder!

https://www.amazon.com/All-Ducks-Are-Birds-But/dp/1504960084