Backyard Bird Watching

State-by-state table of when hummingbirds leave in fall, which species you’ll see, and the date to take your feeder down (two weeks after the last bird).

A gray bird with a red head is usually a male house finch, but it could be a red-bellied woodpecker, pyrrhuloxia, redpoll or even a sandhill crane. How to tell.

Towhees, red-headed woodpeckers, grosbeaks, magpies, lark buntings and more. How to identify a black bird with white on its wings, plus what leucism looks like.

Hawks don’t hunt people. The only real encounters are spring nest defense. What’s actually risky for pets and chickens, and how to stay safe near a nest.

A bird with its mouth open is usually panting to cool off. It can also be begging, threatening, catching its breath or, in cool weather, sick. How to tell.

Robins, bluebirds, catbirds and more lay blue eggs. How to tell them apart by shade, speckles, size and nest, why eggs are blue, and what to do if you find one.

Are pigeons dirty? The birds are cleaner than their reputation. The real risk is built-up droppings. What’s true, how to clean up safely, and how to keep pigeons off feeders.

Why hawks scream, what each call means, when they’re loudest, and how to tell a red-tailed hawk from a red-shouldered hawk or a blue jay faking it.

The birds you’ll see in a Minnesota yard in winter, summer and year-round, how to identify them, and what to feed them.

Dark-eyed juncos, the winter snowbirds, arrive under feeders across the U.S. from late September to March. How to identify them, when they come and go, and the small seed and ground feeding that keeps them in your yard.