Better birding: tips, tools, and concepts for the field

Introduction. Wide-angle birding: be the bird, see the bird ; Becoming a "good birder": understanding the basics ; Birding mentors ; Why birding is cool

Waterbirds. Loons ; Swans ; Mallard and monochromatic "mallards" ; White herons

Coastal birds. Eiders ; Brachyramphus murrelets ; Pacific cormorants

Seabirds. Sulids: northern gannet and boobies ; Tropical terns ; Atlantic gadflies

Large shorebirds. Curlews ; Godwits

Skulkers. Marsh sparrows ; Small wrens (troglodytes and cistothorus)

Birds of forest and edge. Accipiters ; American rosefinches

Aerial insectivores. Swifts

Night birds. Screech-owls: an "otus" and the megascops ; Nighthawks

Open-country birds. Yellow-bellied kingbirds ; Black corvids: crows and ravens ; Pipits ; Longspurs ; Cowbirds.