Birds come in all sorts of eye-catching hues, which makes them easier to spot in busy backdrops. But color isn't always the best place to start when trying to identify a species. Bluebirds aren’t always blue, goldfinches aren’t always gold—if we just focus on color, we may have to learn the same species over and over. Here are some other hints birders can rely on to get to the bottom of the mystery. 1. Group With over 800 species of birds in North America alone, it's helpful to narrow the choices down from the get-go. Scientists use dozens of different families to group avians: It pays to learn which traits define each family. Noting that a bird is gray isn't as useful as recognizing that it’s a gray owl, or a gray gull, or a gray sparrow-like bird. Hone it down to the family level, or to a group of families, and you’ll be halfway home on the final ID. You'll even learn the subgroups in each family as you go along. 2. Shape This is really an extension of the...