Interesting Backyard Plumage Differences

Many of our backyard birds either have no plumage differences between male and female (e.g. Chickadees, Titmice) or very obvious ones (e.g. Cardinals, summer Goldfinches), and even among the rest the casual observer can sort things out soon enough (e.g. Bluebirds, House Finches). The subtleties mount with the less common visitors. Here's a great case in point: Pine Warblers don't come by often enough or stay long enough to study and nail. Even I peered at this BirdCam photo for a few more minutes sorting things out... oh yes, the male is much yellower below, isn't he. All that variety does make things interesting. Always it seems that there are fun identification problems even for our typical species. Keep looking out!