Bird Guides: Identify, Understand, and Attract Birds
Whether you’re trying to name a bird you just saw, learn what it means when a certain species crosses your path, or bring more birds to your own backyard, this is the starting point for everything on Bird Serenity.
Birding questions tend to fall into a few different categories and knowing which one you’re actually asking makes it much faster to find the right answer. Do you want to know what the bird is?
What color it was? How to attract or deter it? What it symbolizes? Or are you trying to tell two similar-looking birds apart? Each of those is a different guide below.
Explore Bird Guides by Category
| Category | What It Covers | Explore |
|---|---|---|
| Bird Species Guide | Identify birds by species, family, and group from individual profiles to full species-group breakdowns | Browse Species Guides |
| Bird By Color | Identify a bird by its plumage color when you don’t know its name | Browse by Color |
| Backyard Bird | Practical guides to attracting specific birds to your feeders, or deterring the ones you don’t want | Browse Backyard Guides |
| Bird Symbolism & Spirituality | What different birds represent in folklore, spirituality, and culture | Browse Symbolism Guides |
| Bird Comparisons | Side-by-side breakdowns of commonly confused, similar-looking species | Browse Comparisons |
You can also browse birds by Bird name A–Z, or explore general Bird Facts.
FAQs
I don’t know anything about the bird except where I saw it where should I start?
Try our state bird guides narrowing by location first often cuts down the possibilities before you even need color or species clues.
What’s the difference between a “species guide” and a “comparison” guide?
A species guide profiles one bird (or one family) in depth appearance, habitat, diet, behavior. A comparison guide is built specifically to separate two birds people commonly mix up, focusing only on what sets them apart.
Can a bird show up in more than one category?
Yes. The Mourning Dove, for example, has its own species profile, appears in a symbolism guide, and appears in a comparison guide against the White-Winged Dove each covering a different angle on the same bird.