Watching, Attracting and Feeding Birds in New York
with Sam Crowe

Great Bird Songs

Many birds have beautiful and unique songs or calls. Here are a few of our favorites.

Meet the Killdeer

This bird was named after its call.

Although a shorebird, the Killdeer occupies many habitats other than shorelines. It is a familiar sight along gravel roadsides or parking lots in addition to more typical shorebird habitats. Killdeer are very widely distributed in North America. In some areas individuals remain year-round but in many areas Killdeer are migratory.

Killdeer are good flyers but are also good runners. Movements on the ground are typically made up of short runs interspersed with pauses and head-bobs. Killdeer sleep and roost on the ground and occasionally take shelter from heavy rain.

Killdeer. Photograph © Sam Crowe

The Killdeer is well known for its distraction display in which it feigns being injured to lure predators away from its nest.
Killdeer must shade their nests in hot climates, and sometimes soak their belly feathers to help cool the eggs.

The typical call is a plaintive trilling "kil-dee, kil-dee", from which the species got its name. Learn more about the Killdeer.

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Birding Quick Hits

If you find a baby bird try to put it back in its nest. It is NOT true that the adults will smell your presence on the baby bird and abandon it.

Learn about the White-breasted Nuthatch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which bird is the fastest flyer?

The Needle-tailed Swift has been reported to reach speeds of a little over 100 mph in level, flapping flight.

The speedy Peregrine Falcon is known to reach speeds of 200 mph in a stoop (dive) and is thought to be the fastest bird.

Bird identification

Learning to identify the birds you see is a fun and rewarding experience. If you are a novice at identifying birds we have several options for you.

Nifty Fifty Guides: Our Nifty Fifty Guide to the Birds of New York is available on-line and in print. It contains 25 common backyard birds and 25 additional common birds found in New York. Purchase the print version.

The online version is shown below. Click on a corner to turn the page.

Birdzilla.com has multiple resources for identifying a bird you have seen as well as information on improving your identification skills. You can also send us an image on the NameThatBird.com web site and we will try to identify it for you.

Watching, Attracting and Feeding Birds in New York with Sam Crowe