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Grey go-away-bird
The call can sound like the bird is telling you to go away. The words are an approximation of the drawn-out alarm, which is easier to hear in a recording than to guess from the gray crest. It is a good example of people putting a bird’s sound into ordinary speech.
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Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
The sapsucker part describes the bird’s habit of drilling rows of shallow wells into trees and returning for sap. The pale yellow that can wash the belly is subtler than the name sounds. Rows of holes on a trunk can be more obvious than the color on the bird.
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Laughing kookaburra
The laughing part needs little explanation once a kookaburra starts calling. The chuckles build into loud bursts that can sound like several people laughing together. This is a name that makes more sense in a recording than it does beside a quiet photograph.
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Shoebill
A large, broad bill gives the bird its name. From the side, the tip curves down and the upper bill bulges like the toe of a shoe. From the front, the bill and the bird’s steady stare are two different parts of the same unforgettable profile.
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Bufflehead
The name points to a buffalo-like profile. The male can puff the feathers around its head so it looks especially big above a small body. When the feathers lie flat, the white patch remains a more dependable way to spot the same duck.
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Black-capped chickadee
Listen for the little notes that sound like chick-a-dee. The black cap is the separate clue for identifying the bird when it is quiet. Putting the call and the pattern together makes this a name you can remember with both your ears and eyes.
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Eastern wood pewee
The slurred call sounds like pee-a-wee, the source of the pewee part of the name. The bird is plain gray-brown, so your ears often give you a better clue than your eyes. Listen for the phrase repeating around woodland edges.
More about Eastern wood pewee8
Bald eagle
Bald once had a meaning close to white-headed. It fits the adult eagle’s snow-white feathers. A young bald eagle is still mostly dark, so it can take years before you see the color that explains the name.
More about Bald eagle9
Common poorwill
The name follows the sound of the call, a soft repeated phrase that can sound like poor-will. It is easiest to understand after dusk, when the pattern stands out more than the shadowy bird making it. The name leaves out the little changes you may hear between calls.
More about Common poorwill10
Sword-billed hummingbird
The bill projects in a long straight line like the blade of a sword. It can reach into deep flowers from well outside the opening. The small body behind it is handy for comparison when a photograph makes it hard to guess how long the bill really is.
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Eurasian wryneck
A wryneck can twist its head and neck in exaggerated ways, particularly in a defensive display. The contour changes much more than it does on a resting bird. The name is useful when you see movement and much less obvious from the mottled feathers alone.
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Dickcissel
The spring song sounds like the bird is introducing itself. Listen for a short dick, dick followed by several buzzy ciss notes. The black bib and yellow breast can tell you which bird is singing when you spot a male on top of a stalk.
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Roseate spoonbill
Roseate describes the pink color and spoonbill describes the widened end of the bill. Watch it feed and the rounded tip is easier to see as it sweeps through shallows. One part of the name works from far away, and the other comes into focus when the bird turns.
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Oilbird
This bird’s name comes from the oil historically obtained from its fatty young. The adult’s life in caves is a separate surprise. Look at a pictured adult and the name gives very little away until you know the history behind it.
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Secretarybird
The long black feathers behind the head look like quill pens once carried by clerks. That resemblance is one proposed source of the name. A separate theory links secretarybird to an Arabic name, although that connection has also been disputed.
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Blue-footed booby
The feet really are blue, and the bird makes them especially easy to see in its courtship steps. Booby is usually linked to the Spanish bobo, meaning a fool. Both parts of the English name have stuck even though one is much easier to verify by looking.
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Hoatzin
Its nickname, stinkbird, is easier to explain than its formal name. A fermented smell is associated with the way it processes leaves. The unruffled bird above the water may look dignified enough until you know the nickname people remember it by.
More about Hoatzin18
Plain chachalaca
The chachalaca has a call that sounds like cha-cha-LAW-ka. The rough chorus stands out at dawn, especially when several birds call together from trees. Plain is the useful visual part of the name because the loud call belongs to a bird with fairly subdued coloring.
More about Plain chachalaca19
Hoopoe
The hoopoe’s repeated low hoop notes sound very much like the English name. The crest is the visual surprise once you find a bird making that quiet sound. A perched bird can raise and lower it, changing its outline over the course of the same call.
More about Hoopoe20
Bobolink
The sound behind bobolink is easier to hear as a tumble of notes than as one exact word. A male can sing as it flies over a field. The name is a way to imitate part of a longer performance, and the pattern may be more useful than any particular syllable.
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Scissor-tailed flycatcher
The long split tail opens like a pair of scissors when the bird turns in flight. The solid closed view gives away much less. The flycatcher part describes its other recognizable move, leaving a perch to take an insect out of the air.
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