Photo 3: Bird in flight - strip of white feathers on the wings, and small white patch on the upper tail area. Back and sides striped, wings lighter with buff-colored feather edges that also form 2 wing bars. White-tailed Tropicbird: This large white bird has a long black bar on upperwing coverts and outer primaries, black loral mask which extends through and past the eye, yellow-orange bill, white tail streamers, yellow legs and feet and black webbed toes. European Starlings, introduced in the U.S. about 150 years ago, have thrived and often join birds in the yard in flocks--much to the dismay of backyard hosts.Note that starlings in breeding plumage (left) are mostly black but upon closer look, quite iridescent. Feeds on crustaceans, mollusks and marine worms. British Garden Birds . Any time of year, distinguish the mocker by its white wing bars. It has a gray back, wings and tail. White-winged Crossbills are finches with highly specialized, crossed bills and long, pointed wings. Male White-winged Crossbills are rosy-red with black wings and two white wing-bars. The White-winged Junco (J. hyemalis aikeni) has a grey head, breast and upper parts with white wing bars. ... White wing bars distinguish it from other finches. I also found this page on the Museum Victoria site: Pigment variations in birds are well known. Bill is black, pointed, and long. The bar's unique color is caused by colored tips on the primary and secondary covert feathers of the wing - the feathers that cover the upper bulk of the wing … Greenfinch. Black-billed Magpies are familiar and entertaining birds of western North America. Boobies and Gannets (Sulidae) Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) Buntings. Immatures browner and have white throat and fine dark streaking on buff breast and belly. Legs and feet are bright red. Swift bounding flight, alternates rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides. Barn Owl (Tytonidae) Becards, Tityras, and Allies (Tityridae) Bitterns. 5-6" (13-15 cm). Gray above; white belly with small black midbreast spot. ... Largest tit with bold black and white head and black central breast. Alternates rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides. Both forms have pink bill and dark gray tail with white outer tail feathers conspicuous in flight. Unless you live in the deep South, however, you will have the Gray Catbirds only in summer. Buoyant, graceful pigeon-like flight with fluttering wing strokes alternating with soaring glides. Wings are paler below. Sexes are similar. Bobolink. Females are brownish grey. Black wings have two white bars and black tail coverts have bold white tips. This large, flashy relative of jays and crows is a social creature, gathering in numbers to feed at carrion. It is found in the mid-western United States in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, and is relatively rare. The bill is short and thick. Common at bird feeders but often feeds on the ground. Pronounced white eye ring. This crisply striped bundle of black and white feathers creeps along tree trunks and branches like a nimble nuthatch, probing the bark for insects with its slightly downcurved bill. The only bird likely confused with this long-tailed common gray bird in the yard is the Gray Catbird (below). They have long slim … Wing bars can be prominent, distinctive patches on a bird's wing, making them ideal as a field mark to identify bird species. Auks, Murres, and Puffins (Alcidae) Bananaquits. Strong swift direct flight low over water. The black-capped chickadee is a tiny bird with a very large head in comparison to its body and a short neck and long thin tail. The pine forests of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and eastern Montana have an isolated population ("White-winged Junco") similar to the eastern form but with 2 white wing bars and extensive white …