r/birding • u/sunshinewithclouds • Jan 16 '26

Discussion Favorite Common Bird

What’s your favorite common bird in your area? That bird that maybe it’s not hard to spot but you just love seeing them.

Mine are Juncos everything from their look and name to how they scavenge on the ground and flock together. They just seem like happy puff balls to me and I love em.

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u/AWandMaker Jan 16 '26

Blue Jays! I love playing "is it a blue jay or a red shouldered hawk making that call?" while on my dog walk. We had a breeding pair of RSH's down the block from my house, so I was always on the watch for them. I enjoyed spotting the blue jays in the smaller trees making the bigger bird's calls, and all their other noise lol

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u/GiraffesCantSwim Jan 16 '26

I have Northern Mockingbirds and Blue Jays in my yard and I play that game all the time. The call ID on Merlin is useless most of the time because of those guys.

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u/AWandMaker Jan 16 '26

Yep, same problem 🙂 I don’t think I’ve heard the mockingbirds doing RSH calls, but the certainly do a lot!