Field identification
Identifywhat you saw.
Begin with one clue—size, shape, color, habitat, or voice—and narrow the possibilities until you reach a documented profile.
Turn an observation into an answer.
A strong identification starts with structure and context. Notice size, silhouette, bill, movement, and setting first; color changes with the light and is often a secondary clue.
Then compare lookalikes, hear their recordings, and check occurrence, habitat, and season. The atlas keeps those paths connected so a single clue never becomes a dead end.
Three ways to begin
Use the clue you remember.
Identification keys
Compare without guessing.
Curated guides to Puerto Rico groups and questions that are commonly confused.
All guides →Visual identification
Black birds
Compare Puerto Rico's most-confused black birds using size, bill, tail, color patches, behavior, and habitat.Identification by sound
Birds of the night
Distinguish Puerto Rican Owl, Nightjar, nighthawks, and night-herons by rhythm, silhouette, flight, habitat, and credited recordings.Everyday identification
Backyard and urban birds
Identify birds around yards, balconies, plazas, and streets, and create safer urban spaces.Green is not enough
Parrots and parakeets
Separate Puerto Rican Parrot from introduced parakeets using voice, silhouette, pattern, and context.Identification in flight
Raptors
Compare hawks, falcons, kestrels, and Osprey by silhouette, flight, habitat, and season.Shorelines and wetlands
Herons
Compare herons, egrets, and night-herons by size, legs, bill, plumage, posture, and feeding.Forest, coast, and plaza
Pigeons and doves
Distinguish pigeons and doves by size, tail, neck, wings, flight, voice, and habitat.Migration at water level
Shorebirds and plovers
Identify shorebirds by size, bill, legs, behavior, habitat, and season.Perches and voices
Flycatchers and kingbirds
Compare kingbirds, Puerto Rican Flycatcher, and elaenia by voice, bill, tail, perch, and hunting.Residents and travelers
Warblers
Identify warblers by face, wings, tail, habitat, behavior, and season, including two endemics.Practice with familiar species
Notice shape first.
Open a profile, study its field marks, and continue to related species.
Narrow the field
Explore useful identification sets.
Town & Garden Birds
Adaptable birds found in gardens, parks, towns, plantations and other human-shaped landscapes.
Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)
Meet the 8 Puerto Rico bird records in the family Trochilidae.
Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns (Ardeidae)
Meet the 15 Puerto Rico bird records in the family Ardeidae.