Aerialists: Albatrosses, Boobies, Fulmar, Gadfly Petrels, Gannet, Gulls, Jaegers, Shearwaters, Skuas, Storm-petrels, Tropicbirds;
The types of birds mentioned above fly obve the water scanning for food.
Swimmers: Alcids, Phalaropes
The Alcids and Phalaropes will sit in the water aand hunt for their food while swimming. They have wide bodies and webbed feet.
Waterbirds: Most waterbirds seldom stray far from wetlands. Those that do, like the gulls seen scavenging at landfills, are easily recognized.
Aerialists: Brown Pelican, Frigatebird, Gulls, Skimmers, Terns;
Gulls and similar birds fly along slender wings, scanning the water and shores below for food.
Swimmers: Anhinga, Coot, Cormorants, Ducks, Geese, Grebes, Loons, Moorhen, Purple Gallinule Swans, White Pelicans
Ducks and other swimmers have wide bodies and webbed feet. Their profile on the water is very different from that of a resting gull, and their flight is swift and direct, not at all like the slow, searching flight of the aerialists.
Wading Birds: Cranes, Herons, Ibises, Least Bittern, Limpkin, Rails, Stork, Spoonbill
Heron-like birds stalk through marshes and wetlands, often capturing prey with a sudden thrust of a dagger-like bill.
Shorebirds: Avocet, Oystercatcher,Plovers, Sandpipers, Stilt, Wilsons Phalarope
Sandpipers, plovers, and some others typically probe for food on beaches, mud flats, or rock jetties. Many have long, slender bills for deep probing and long legs for wading.
Upland Waterbirds: Dipper, Kingfisher
Kingfishers plunge-dive for fish from a perch (or hoover) over water. The dipper probes along cold mountain streams.
Landbirds: The families of landbirds have adapted to exploit every source of food across the continent. Some even feed off other birds. Many are easily recognized by their distinct feeding adaptions. Owls, Woodpeckers, and Turkeys , for instance, are not likely to be confused with the many perching landbirds we know as songbirds.
Nocturnal: Owls, Nightjars
Owls and Nightjars are often seen at dusk or by moonlight.
Aerialists: Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, Hummingbirds, Swallows, Swifts, Vultures
Hawks hunt from the wing. Swifts and swallows are also aerialists, and hummingbirds are the most acrobatic flyers of all.
Ground-walkers: Doves, Grouse, Partridges, Pigeons, Pheasants, Quails, Roadrunners, Turkey, White-tailed Ptarmigans
Many species occasionally perch on the ground, but only a few, such as Grouse, and Quail, live there. They walk rather than hop. Many have plump bodies and are common hunted as game birds.
Tree-Climbers: Creepers, Nuthatches, Woodpeckers
Woodpeckers use their remarkable bills to hammer or probe under bark for food. They and similar birds are usually seen clinging to the sides of trees.
Perching Landbirds: Perching landbirds are the songbirds that typically flit from one perch to another. They are difficult to sort by shape or color. Bills are their most telling mark, revealing food preferences, which turn influence their behavior.
Flycatching Bills: Flycatchers, Shrikes, Waxwings
Unlike other songbirds, flycatchers usually sit still on an elevated perch between feeding forays. The broad, flat bill often with bristles is not obvious in profile. (See Bill Chart Below)
Curved Bills: Cuckoos, Thrashers, Wrens
A few songbirds have slender, curved bills for specialized insect probing. Most of them are furtive but not very vocal. (See Bill Chart Below)
Straight Bills: Blackbirds, Bluebirds, Catbirds, Chats, Chickadees, Crows, Gnatcatchers, Jays, Kinglets, Larks, Magpies, Meadowlarks, Mockingbirds, Orioles, Pipits, Ravens, Robins, Starlings, Tanagers, Thrushes, Titmice, Vireos, Warblers, Wrentits
A straight, slender bill is the most versatile feeding tool. Large birds with large straight bills, such as crows, are often omnivorous. Smaller birds with small, even tiny, straight bills fed heavily on insects. (See Bill Chart Below)
Conical Bills: Anis, Bobolinks, Buntings, Cardinals, Finches, Grosbeaks, Juncos, Longspurs, Parrots, Sparrows, Towhees, Trogons
Birds such as Sparrows have heavy bills to crack seeds and grains. A few tropical birs, mostly parrots, with very different conical bills, range into southern US states. (See Bill Chart Below)
