I'm Turning into a Bird Brain

I have a friend who is a bird watcher.  She can rattle of the names of almost every bird she sees.  She has told me often that I would be able to recognize the different birds if I kept at it. But I kind of felt like a bird dunce.  I mean I can recognize the basic birds - a crow, blue jay, cardinal, robin, hummingbird, robin, chickadees.  But I have no clue what most of them are.

However, I've discovered that my repertoire of birds is expanding.  Here are a few pictures I've taken and birds that I've learned over the past few months.

Nut hatch.


Junco.


Tufted Titmouse.


Cardinal.


American tree sparrow.


Red-tail hawk


Today I was so excited to see this guy across the road in a tree.  He is young because you can see the black feathers still peeking through the white on his head.  He sat on the tree branch and was eating a pheasant.

Bald eagle.


I took this one a few summers ago and still don't know what it is.  Any ideas? A mockingbird?  Editing to add that I got my answer.  It's a gray catbird.



I've been enjoying doing some bird watching each day and recognizing the different birds who come to visit each day.