The bird most people mean when they say they saw a red bird. Both sexes have the crest and the thick orange bill, which is what identifies the brown female that so many people cannot place.

Loud, bold and unmistakable in the east. The blue is structural rather than pigment — a blue jay feather ground to powder is brown, which is why the colour shifts so much with the light.

The bird whose feeding behaviour everyone has watched without naming it: run, stop, cock the head, pull a worm. It is a thrush, and the head-cocking is looking rather than listening.

The mournful cooing people mistake for an owl. The long pointed tail separates it from every other dove and pigeon at a glance, and the wings whistle on take-off.

Introduced from Europe in the 1850s and now among the most widespread birds on the continent. It is not a native sparrow — it is a weaver finch, and the plain unstreaked breast of the female gives it away.

All the starlings in North America descend from about a hundred birds released in New York in the 1890s. The short tail and long bill give it a distinctly front-heavy, triangular look in flight that nothing else shares.

The bird people think has left for the winter. It has not — it moults into a dull olive plumage and keeps coming to the feeder unrecognised, which is why 'what happened to my goldfinches' is asked every autumn.

Originally a western bird, released in New York in the 1940s and now everywhere. The red varies from scarlet to orange to yellow depending entirely on what the bird ate while moulting.

Usually the first bird to find a new feeder, and the one that leads mixed winter flocks. It takes one seed at a time and flies off to eat it, which is a reliable behavioural tell.

A chickadee relative with a crest and a much bigger voice. The large dark eye in a plain grey face gives it an expression people find distinctive before they can say why.

The bird that walks down tree trunks head-first. Nothing else does it, and it is the whole identification — woodpeckers and creepers only go up.

The smallest woodpecker in North America and the one at most feeders. It is separated from the nearly identical hairy woodpecker by bill length, and that comparison is the whole exercise.

Badly named, and the cause of endless confusion: the red belly is a faint wash almost never visible, while the red on the head is obvious. People reasonably call it a red-headed woodpecker, which is a different bird entirely.

A woodpecker that feeds on the ground, mostly on ants, which is why people find it on the lawn and never think of woodpeckers. The white rump in flight is the giveaway.

One of the most abundant birds in North America, and the female is one of the most misidentified. She is heavily streaked and sparrow-like but far too large, with a long sharp bill.

The pale yellow eye in a black head is the fastest identification of any blackbird. In flight the tail is folded into a keel shape, like the hull of a boat, which nothing else does.

A brood parasite: it lays in other birds' nests and leaves them to raise the young. The short conical bill separates it from every other blackbird, and the plain grey female is a common feeder mystery.

Separating crow from raven is the commonest question in the group, and it is answered by the tail in flight: a crow's is fanned and square, a raven's is a wedge.

Bigger than a crow, but size is useless without a comparison. The tail shape in flight and the voice are what actually separate them, and both work at a distance.

The bird people call a buzzard, and the one they mistake for an eagle. It is identified in flight without seeing it well at all: wings held in a shallow V, and a constant rocking teeter.

The default large hawk across most of North America and the one on every roadside pole. The dark belly band on a pale chest identifies it even when the tail is not visible or not yet red.

The hawk that turns up at bird feeders, because the feeder is what it is hunting. A sudden silence and an empty yard usually means one is sitting nearby.

Adults are unmistakable. Immatures are not, and they are what most reported golden eagles turn out to be — mottled brown and white, with the white in irregular blotches rather than clean areas.

Routinely called a crane, which it is not. The difference shows in flight: a heron folds its neck back into an S, while a crane flies with the neck straight out.

Once a symbol of migration and now a year-round resident of parks and playing fields across the continent. The white chinstrap identifies it instantly.

The ancestor of nearly every domestic duck, which is why park ducks are so variable. The blue speculum bordered with white on both edges is present on every mallard regardless of how odd the rest looks.

A shorebird that nests on gravel car parks and playing fields, far from any shore. The two chest bands are unique among North American plovers, and the broken-wing display is famous.

Identified by movement rather than plumage: it teeters its rear end continuously, without stopping, from the moment it lands. Nothing else on a shoreline does that.

The only hummingbird that breeds east of the Great Plains, which makes eastern identification unusually simple. The red throat is iridescent, not pigment, so it appears black most of the time.

A thrush, and it hunts like one — perching on a low wire or post, watching the grass, and dropping onto insects. The blue is structural and can look grey in flat light.

Far louder than a bird of its size has any right to be. The white eyebrow and the cocked tail identify it, and it will nest in a boot, a plant pot or a coat pocket left in a shed.

The default streaky brown sparrow across most of the continent, and the central breast spot is the fastest way in. Plumage varies enormously by region — pale and rufous in the southwest, dark and sooty in the Pacific Northwest.

Called the snowbird because it arrives at feeders with the cold. The white outer tail feathers flashing as it flies off are the identification, and they work on every regional form.

One of the most elegant birds on the continent and one people rarely see well, because flocks arrive silently, strip a fruiting tree and leave. The yellow tail tip is visible at any distance.

Loud, brilliant and surprisingly hard to see, because it stays in the canopy. It comes to orange halves and grape jelly, which is the most reliable way to get a look at one.

The only North American swallow with a genuinely long forked tail, which settles it in flight without any other character. It nests on beams and ledges in barns, bridges and porches.

A flycatcher identified by what it lacks and what it does: no wing bars, no eye-ring, and a tail that dips downward constantly. Among the earliest migrants back in spring.