Editor's note -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Challenges in birding and how to approach them -- 2. The winter loons -- 3. The western grebe complex -- 4. Medium-sized white herons -- 5. The dark ibises -- 6. The Scaup -- 7. Brief notes on other ducks -- 8. The accipiters -- 9. Basics of shorebird identification -- 10. The dowitchers -- 11. Sharp-tailed and pectoral sandpipers -- 12. Semipalmated and western sandpipers -- 13. The jaegers -- 14. Basics of learning the gulls -- 15. Franklin's and laughing gulls -- 16. The Thayer's gull complex -- 17. Brief notes on other gulls -- 18. The medium-sized terns -- 19. Brief notes on other terns -- 20. The screech-owls -- 21. Hummingbirds -- 22. The yellow-bellied sapsucker complex -- 23. The wood-pewees -- 24. The Empidonax flycatchers -- 25. The chickadees -- 26. Bendire's thrasher -- 27. The Philadelphia vireo complex -- 28. Tips for identifying fall warblers -- 29. The Blackpoll trio -- 30. The waterthrushes -- 31. Notes on other warblers -- 32. Identifying sparrows : the generic approach -- 33. Cassin's and Botteri's sparrows -- 34. The Spizella sparrows -- 35. The Carpodacus finches -- Annotated bibliography -- Index.