Inside Birding: Size and Shape

Learn the most fundamental skill for identifying birds: recognizing them by size and shape. Birding experts Chris Wood and Jessie Barry show you how to compare different birds and employ your observations to make a confident ID.
Join them in the field to practice these techniques on common birds and learn how to distinguish similar species such as Hairy and Downy woodpeckers.
Watch more Inside Birding episodes from the Cornell Lab on these keys to bird identification:
Behavior • Inside Birding: Behavior
Habitat • Inside Birding: Habitat
Color • Inside Birding: Color ...
Size and Shape • Inside Birding: Size a...
Develop your bird ID skills even further with Bird Academy’s online courses. Full of expert tips, videos, quizzes, downloads and more, our online courses are written by our team of expert birders, ornithologists, and educational designers. Best of all, these courses never expire-you can learn online anytime, anywhere. There’s something for every bird enthusiast at Bird Academy, so ‘Be a Better Birder’ today:
academy.allaboutbirds.org/
#birds #birdwatching #birdacademy

[@farukbloch8212]

I like birds

[@katherineclemo9691]

All these videos on how to bird are wonderful. I have been birding for 20 years, but no one ever told me about some of these techniques. Thank you so much!!

[@AbbieFox]

Thank you so much for this terrific introductory video on birding. My third graders watched it, and they really got a good sense for how to carefully observe wild birds. Now, when we go birding, I hear them saying, "It's larger than a robin, but smaller than a crow." Awesome!

[@markdezuba]

Thanks guys

[@danphenPhe]

Great ID tips

[@sharons5880]

Fascinating and helpful...I now know how to differentiate these two woodpeckers..thanks

[@hariniraghavan8193]

Thank you for the tips

[@AnandA-cy5br]

Thank you so much for the wonderful educational videos. The clarity with which you present is quite commendable. I am a budding birder and would appreciate if the name of the bird/s is mentioned on the screen itself making it easy for us to relate to and learn.

[@udheeshthattekkadu8907]

Happy Birding

[@montgomerygarden]

I think this is the third time I've watched this video... I want to have the information become ingrained. I have already "taken my Birding to another level"... Thank you two & Cornell Ornithology Lab & all the other behind the scenes folks that made these videos possible. I have greatly enjoyed all four videos... And posted all four on facebook... Again, THANKS!

[@peacecitizen1]

Thanks for the video Cornell LoO, your tip on comparing relative sizes between the Downy and Hairy Woodpecker helped make the correct identification this weekend! Logged my first Downy.

[@Quasar502]

I am already a better birder for having watched this video. Have Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers at the feeders all the time. You just made it easy to tell which. Thanks

[@farukbloch8212]

I like the birdwatching

[@marcianorwood]

This is so informative. I have learned a lot that will help me be a better birder.

[@PatCrosby]

Thanks. I can now tell the hairy's from the downy's on the feeder. Great insights.

[@EugeneClewlow]

Man. Great video editing technique. Very professional. Chunky? Is that the first impression people make of me. That I’m chunky?

[@rogersearcy]

thank for the great and helpful hints

[@ESTUDIO7SIETE]

thanks!!!!what a wonderful video

[@4eversupersonicgirl]

this was very helpful. thanks!

[@Jackson-pm9vr]

Great video quality

[@richardavelino7383]

So happy they got experts like Mark Hamill to help me in identifying birds. :) What Joker said to Batman: 2:34

[@SmokyMountainStarlight]

Great video !!

[@ethanmagnuson2988]

Wow this is sooooo helpful! Thank you so much

[@fernandrums]

That's awesome friends... Thanks. Question? What Binos were you using? 🤔

[@daxamillion12gaming36]

thank you so much

[@montgomerygarden]

I love this series, Inside Birding, and the two ornithologists... I have learned more, or rather, I can take what I already know and observe with a few questions... I am soo excited. In the past, I just tried to tell by color & markings- but those darn birds fly & flit so quickly. I have two bird feeders & all these little songbirds come... What are they? I still don't know, but I know I will be able to figure who they all are. A few have a longer tail, most of them are little round fatties...

[@minecraft7able]

This is awesome

[@AllenBirdcam]

Great video. Is Cornell using these principles for birding AI?

[@cameonet1950]

I just watched this series for the first time and learned SO much. Thank you!!! I do have one tiny request for future instructional videos like this: Would you please flash the name/species of birds on the screen as they are observed and announced? It would be very helpful to us beginners. Other than that, each video was OUTSTANDING! And thank you for my “Project FeederWatch” Bird-Watching Days calendar. Now I just need a better pair of binoculars. ♥

[@katherineclemo9691]

i agree with you about flashing the name of the bird on the screen as they are shown. That thought ran through my head, too.

[@dwizayekti]

thank video

[@MartaniPanganSehat]

Thank you.

[@randyarchambault8865]

Now I know how to tell the difference between downy and hairy at my suet feeders!

[@piertiong]

Helped me alot. All along i have been just watching blindly👍🏻

[@santoshbansode697]

Thanks for help,,,, with ❤️,,,,,,,,

[@senthilkumarselvam]

wow! where did you go to see these birds? cardinals and cedar waxwings are rare!

[@user-ht4gb2fw4e]

I saw two new birds near my building. One is a small Jay with a kind of pastel reddish pink on it's head and tail. The middle is a greyish color. The othe bird is the size of a Grackle but it's light grey! And it's long tail has two white bars on the edges, and the wing's have thick white on the edges too. I think the changing climate brought them north.

[@phonicdictation9856]

i want to see and thank you in person

[@birbs4life174]

Try differenting a Pacific Loon from a Red-throated at a thousand feet in air completely backlit.

[@phonicdictation9856]

great

[@phonicdictation9856]

i saw a forest behind you

[@GospelTruth37059]

Can you help me identify this bird in TN? Its about the size of a sparrow I have been watching it when it comes on floor by feeder to eat which isnt often, only when it gets really really cold and snowy do i see it come out. It will than hop than scratch back with both fet at once. I call it my hoppin scratchin bird . It hops than scratches back with both feet in a fluid short motion. Ok..I Hope you can help me identify this bird with these eating characteristics. God bless

[@senthilkumarselvam]

the behavior you said sounds like a spotted towhee.

[@sotyculler847]

Thanks for the video. I enjoy bird watching but when i have my bionicalars. People think im spying i guess because im black

[@cruzechevy3485]

Hey, I enjoy birding too, I thought I was the only black person that like checking out birds, 😎.

[@SilverwingStudios]

Dude, that's awful. People are jerks. I'm sorry man.

[@christianromero6604]

Can someone help me...i have a cool lookin bird buulding a nest in my tree..but i cant tell if its a Hawk or a Falcon. I live in Wi.....

[@christianromero6604]

Also does anyone on here know enough to help me indetify a bird in my tree...its either a falcon or hawk...please. Help..im and absolute beginner to this

[@martinbennett7132]

5

[@ahmedrami6538]

ihope to be birding but i have langauge probleme . ineed help plz

[@cruzechevy3485]

Cardinals might be to common for other people, not for me tho.

[@birdfanboi]

I thought the dude was Jack McBrayer for second.

[@gabrielraykin3686]

birdie

[@windfall0337]

Thick

[@monasingh-theo2859]

See early human...ladies took farming job in their home/premises...they started feeding food/water incoming birds...a continual energy energise process..

[@gabrielraykin3686]

funny bit=rdie

[@Javaman92]

This is the fourth video in the playlist yet it seems obvious that it shouldn't be. How hard is it to make an educational playlist in the correct order?

[@2Ksand3Js]

The non-hairy woodpecker is hairier than the hairy woodpecker😂🤣😅

[@rinjinnoko]

So like, what if I know absolutely nothing and have nothing to compare with? I only know chickens

[@ramboj7924]

guy looks like bostick

[@dwizayekti]

thank video