What's That Bird?

The Bird Porch · Field Tools

What's that bird?

Three questions about the bird at your feeder, and this narrows it to the backyard regulars it could actually be — with the one field mark that settles it.

01How big was it?Compare to something you know
02What colour struck you first?Pick more than one if you like
03Where was it?Where a bird feeds is half the identification

Best matches

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Your yard list

Tick a bird as you confirm it and it stays on this list in your browser — no account, nothing sent anywhere. Most porches end the first year somewhere between 15 and 25 species.

0of 24 regulars

Birds of your state

Our state mugs show the birds outside your window, not somebody else's. All 50 states are printed — pick yours to find it.

How to read a match. The percentage is how well your three answers fit that species — not a scientific identification. Plumage changes with sex and season, and ranges vary: Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees, for example, swap over in a narrow band across the middle of the country and hybridise where they meet.

For a confirmed identification, the free Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will take a photo or a recording, and eBird shows what is actually being reported near you this week. This page is here to narrow it down while the bird is still on the feeder.