BirdNote Journal

In many parts of the country, the most common backyard birds tend to look the same to the untrained eye. They might be sparrows, wrens, juncos, finches ... or something altogether different. Learning to tell these unidentified flying objects apart can be really frustrating. Long ago, birdwatchers came up with whimsical terms to describe them: LBBs, little brown birds, or LBJs, little brown jobs. These small nondescript birds are camouflaged to blend in with dried grass, leaves, and dark underbrush-it's one means of their survival. But it can be maddening to sort out the "subtle streaking," the "slightly grayer forehead," or the "upright stance" -phrases that bird books use to distinguish the birds. One solution? Ask a seasoned birder for help. Purchase a basic field guide of your local birds. Ask the birder to put markers on the ten to twelve pages of the birds you are most likely to see in your yard. Then when you spot an LBB, you can flip to the most likely pages and compare the bird on the page to the bird in the yard. You'll soon begin to recognize them. And the next time you're out for a walk and an unidentified flying object crosses your path, you might surprise yourself by knowing its name.