Birds of Toronto and Vicinity from Lone Publishing
Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds from Little Brown (taxonomy by colour)
Eastern Birds, Peterson Field Guides. This is the "Birder’s Bible" using the"Peterson System". It has been replaced by a newer volume which includes central North America.
Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds. This guide has photographs rather than sketches and comes with a formidable DVD featuring 5.5 hours of vocalizations in 587 MP3 files, each embedded with an image.Guide des Oiseaux de l’Amerique du Nord. Guide d’identification sur le terrain (Marcel Broquet, Quebec, 1983) [out of print]
Links:
Checklist of the birds of Toronto
All about birds from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Identification by shape:
Bird silhouette identification quiz form Nature.ca
Identification by sound:
Who's Calling? interactive from Nature.ca
A Discerning Ear interactive from Nature.ca
Onomatopoeia Challenge interactive from Nature.ca (French songs too)
These silouhettes are available from Ernest-Charles.
We got ours from Yule-Hyde.
Or you can make your own using examples from Google Images.Here are some of the birds we saw in 2009:
hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) hummingbird: These tiny wonderful birds were in our apple trees at blossom time.
ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) warbler. This little one crashed into our big picture window and died (before we put up our bird silhouette's to protect the birds).
robin (Turdus migratorius) thrush
cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) cardinal: We have lots of these all year round, especially in the spruce tree out back.
red tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis): This surprising bird alerted us through its distinctive cry. At first we thought it was squirrels fighting, but then saw it sitting on a railing. Its size is shocking!
chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina): This little bird surprised us by flying through our open sliding patio doors and attracting the attention of the beagle. This little one is quite tame and charming.
black-throated green warbler (Dendroica virens): This little bird was lying on the patio bricks and then suddenly my naughty little beagle sniffed at the bird and looked at me (Zoo) all confused (luckily he didn't eat it alive). The bird allowed me to pick him up and we brought it inside, identified it, and took care of it. The call is Zoo-Zee, Zoo-Zoo-Zee.
gray-cheeked thrush (Catharus minimus): The Beagle alerted Zoo to this little bird who was easily taken in hand. At first view, we thought it an Ovenbird, but clearly a thrush, although at first we thought it a Swainson's thrush, but the bird lacked the warm orangey-yellow plumage on the neck and upper chest. The eye ring was distinctive, but it must be less so than the Swainson's.
