Wild Website: WhatBird.com

I just discovered this website and am amazed that I had not seen it before. It was very helpful in identifying a small flock of birds I saw the other day on the University of Idaho campus. When I first saw the birds, my gut said white pelican. But it was still kind of an odd sighting so I decided to do some online sleuthing. I had left my bird books back at home so had to rely in the internet. I really should keep one of my field guides in my car for just such cases.

Anyway, I came across this website:www.whatbird.com. Click the tab "Search" which takes you to their awesome search engine here. If you know the name of the bird you are looking for you can search that way. OR...go down to the bottom half of the page and there is a section called Attributes. You get to pick out all the various characteristics of the bird you saw and it will slowly whittle down the possible birds you saw and list them in the box above. I was able to confirm my gut reaction to those three high-flying black and white giant birds I saw while on a hike at the U of I arboretum this way. It seems like a great resource for folks learning birding and also folks like me who have been birding for half my life but still need confirmation on what I saw sometimes and don't have a dog-eared field guide handy. Happy birding!