Backyard Bird Watching

Learn the common winter sparrows at your feeder: tree, white-throated, white-crowned, song, fox and chipping sparrows, and how to tell them apart fast.

A gray bird with an orange belly is usually an American robin. How to tell it from a female bluebird, red-breasted nuthatch, titmouse or Say’s phoebe.

A small gray bird with a black cap is usually a chickadee. How to tell it from a nuthatch, catbird, junco or titmouse, and which chickadee lives near you.

How to prepare bird feeders for winter: clean and disinfect them, keep seed dry, move them to safe spots, add baffles, stock high-energy food and water.

How to keep a bird bath from freezing: a de-icer or heated bath, a fresh bowl each morning, sun and a dark basin. Never add antifreeze, glycerin or salt.

Put suet out when the weather turns cold and keep it up through winter. Temperature rules for raw, rendered and no-melt suet, and when to take it down.

No vet source gives a safe number of hours. Why a budgie that stops eating is urgent, how to spot empty seed husks, illness signs and when to call a vet.

Cockatoo rescue adoption fees run $200 to $800 at four rescues. See lifetime costs, 25 to 45+ year lifespans, noise, CITES rules and what to know first.