Birds

The gray catbird mews like a cat and then sings a rambling song that never repeats a phrase. Here is the full catbird sound repertoire and how to identify it.

Grackles squeal like an unoiled hinge, and each of the three US species has its own voice. Here is what every grackle sound means and how to tell them apart.

A cardinal sound is either a loud slurred whistle or a sharp metallic chip. Here is what each one means, and why the pew pew bird is a cardinal.

The killdeer sound is a piercing kill-deeah repeated over gravel lots and ballfields, day and night. Here is what each version of the call means.

The famous hawk scream belongs to the Red-tailed Hawk, not the Bald Eagle. Here is how to match every common hawk sound to the bird that made it.

The resplendent quetzal grows tail coverts longer than its own body. Species list, range, diet, nesting, cultural history and the best places to find one wild.

Birds have no bladder and never produce liquid urine. The white cap on a bird dropping is the urine, and the reason why explains flight and eggs.

The Cayuga is a black American duck breed that lays near black eggs early in the season and slowly turns white with age.

No crest and a pale bill means tanager, not cardinal. Twelve red birds compared by crest, bill, red coverage, range and season.

El Salvador’s national bird is the turquoise-browed motmot, the torogoz. What it looks like, what it symbolizes, and how that racket tipped tail forms.