The Backyard Field Guide
Plain-English guides to attracting backyard birds, feeding them well, telling them apart, and watching them up close.
The backyard field guide
A good place to start, whatever brings you to the feeder.
Newest guide · Birding for Beginners
Small gifts that bird lovers will actually use, grouped by feeding, watching, learning and kids, with notes on what makes each one worth giving and what to skip.
Many birdhouse kits for kids end up as shelf decorations. Here is how to pick or build one a real wren, chickadee or bluebird will move into, with tasks matched to each age.
6 min read
Learn how crowding, droppings, shared ports and spoiled seed can spread disease at feeders, plus cleaning, reporting and prevention steps.
5 min read
In summer the difference jumps out: a lemon-yellow male with a black cap beside an olive-yellow female. In winter it comes down to the wings. What to check in every season.
5 min read
Attract Greater Roadrunners with open travel lanes, native scrub, natural prey and safe perches—not meat, pet food or hand-feeding.
5 min read
Your feeder camera says it saw a Hairy Woodpecker. Should you believe it? How AI bird identification works, where it goes wrong, and how to check a label yourself.
6 min read
Those plain olive-brown birds at the nyjer feeder are probably your summer goldfinches. How the molt works, month by month, and how to recognize them in winter.
5 min read
Birds may sort a mix, drop empty hulls, carry food away or expose a feeder leak. Learn how camera clues identify the cause and reduce real waste.
5 min read
Ruby-throats in the East, Rufous and others in the West: a region-by-region guide to when hummingbirds arrive in spring, when they leave in fall, and how your yard can help.
6 min read
Cracked corn can suit doves, quail and other ground-feeding birds, but it must stay dry, be served in small amounts and never be planting seed.
5 min read
Feeders can attract snakes indirectly through spilled seed, rodents, birds and nearby cover. Learn safe prevention, encounter and bite-response rules.
5 min read
What a bird feeder camera's phone app does, screen by screen: alerts, live view, clips, species ID and sharing, and which settings to change first.
6 min read
