Canada Goose, Forest Grove, Oregon, 3 May 2009 by Greg Gillson.The 13 categories of North American birds listed in the Field-friendly bird sequence: Part II are:
Swimming Waterbirds
Flying Waterbirds
Wading Waterbirds
Chicken-like Birds
Raptors
Miscellaneous Landbirds
Aerial Landbirds
Flycatcher-like Birds
Thrush-like Songbirds
Chickadee and Wren-like Songbirds
Warbler-like Songbirds
Sparrow and Finch-like Songbirds
Blackbird-like Songbirds
A beginner should be able to quickly place a bird they see into one of these categories.
The Swimming Waterbirds are those primarily web-footed birds most-frequently observed swimming. Oh, most are strong fliers, but they search for food while swimming and spend a great amount of time swimming and sometimes diving under the water.
Included families: geese, swans, ducks, loons, grebes, cormorants, coot, alcids.
Hooded Merganser, Hillsboro, Oregon, 7 January 2010 by Greg Gillson.
Clark's Grebe, Forest Grove, Oregon, 5 July 2010 by Greg Gillson.
Pelagic Cormorant, Newport, Oregon, 9 August 2008 by Greg Gillson.
American Coot, Forest Grove, Oregon, 7 February 2009 by Greg Gillson.
Tufted Puffin, off Newport, Oregon, 10 August 2008 by Greg Gillson.