3.22.23 at 31st Street Beach and Northerly Island, Chicago, IL

There are at least 11 subspecies of Canada goose, one being the Giant Canada goose, once thought extinct!

Ring-billed Gulls are identifiable by their white body with grey wings and yellow feet and beak with a black ring on their beak.

Turkey Vultures have six-foot wingspans! While they are not too tall, the second they open their wings, you realize just how big they are.

Despite what some people call vultures, they are not the same as buzzards! Buzzards are their own type of bird, and are different from vultures.

These Canada geese are not Giant Canada Geese, as Giants have white spots near the top of their heads.

Gulls often get a bad rap because they eat peoples food and garbage, but they can't steal your food if you don't leave it open and unattended.

There are many species of gull, but these are most likely Ring-billed Gulls.

Canada geese are in the same family, Anatidae, as swans, ducks and other geese.

This gull was taking a bath in the small waves coming to shore.

Gulls are a very difficult species to identify, as most white-headed gulls have dots or rings on their beaks that are the best way to identify them.

If you see a group of black, white, grey, and orangeish birds that keep diving and resurfacing with fish, chances are that you are seeing Red-breasted Mergansers.

Greater Scaups and Lesser Scaups are very similar, and the biggest differences are that Greater Scaups have more rounded, green heads, wider, bluer beaks, and females have more white coming from their beaks.

Red-breasted mergansers have spiky feathers on their heads that they flatten during flight.

Horned grebes have floating nests like American Coots, and eat aquatic invertebrates.

This Red-breasted Merganser got it's head feathers wet from diving for fish.

Red-breasted Mergansers don't get breeding plumage until they are two years old!

Red-winged Blackbird's habitats are generally marshes, so it's common to see them on cattails.

Common Goldeneyes are called so because of the yellow eyes of the males. Females still have bright eyes, but white.

Red-breasted Mergansers tend to fly with their head higher than their feet.

Canada geese are often seen as mean, loud jerks, and they often are, but they are often just protecting their chicks or territory.

This Red-breasted Merganser fell asleep and fell behind the rest of the group, so you can see it's telltale reddish chest.

On the right, if you look close enough, you can see the wide white stripe right behind the beak that marks this group of four as Greater Scaups.

For some reason, American Crows like peanuts! You can leave these or many other household foods out to attract them.

Red-winged blackbird

Red-winged blackbird

These are most likely Lesser Scaups, considering that the females don't have conspicuous white marks behind the beak.

Canada geese