How to identify it:  Large blue-gray bird with large bill, tuft of feathers on top of head, brownish sides with white "collar".

This is a bird of streams, lakeshores and shallow marine bays. It perches near water then swoops down low to the water then up to the next perch, often giving its distinctive rattling call. When it sees prey it dives, hitting the water with a splash. The primary prey are small fish, but it also takes frogs and small shore crabs. Often it may hover over the water before diving.  Once it catches a fish it returns often to the original perch, whaps the fish on the branch, then eats it head first.  Kingfishers nest in holes in vertical banks which they dig with their bill and a specially adapted claw. The tunnels can be several feet in length and the bird may dramatically enter the nest by flying right into it at a fairly high rate of speed, neatly folding its wings and sliding into the tunnel out of view.  The eggs hatch in late May and the parent birds make several trips back and forth bringing food.  The young fledge in July and August and often can be seen for a few weeks following their parents along their feeding grounds.  Like Owls, kingfishers regurgitate a pellet of the indigestible parts of their diet.

How to Identify it:  Uniformly gray bird that bobs along the shore

This is the most aquatic land bird, living nowhere but along streams and lakes. It flies along the center of the stream following its every twist and turn.  To feed it wades into the most boisterous of torrents, then ducks under the water, using its wings like oars and feeds on bottom insects. During salmon spawning they eat great quantities of loose salmon eggs.  Its gray coloration perfectly matches the rocks of the streams it inhabits and its bobbing motion seems to fall into harmony with the movement of the water.  Dippers nests are mossy balls usually under logs, on the edges of rocks, or small waterfalls, often with water rushing over them.  The nest is typically always wet.  They are found from lowland to highland streams and sing regularly all year, although more singing is done during spring. They are well insulated from the cold and can be found in streams at high elevations with banks covered with snow.  Starting in February,  dippers will stake out a stretch of stream as a territory and chase others out. Young are raised from April to July and the young beg for a couple weeks after fledging, following the parents as they fly up and down their stream territories. Like ducks, in late summer dippers molt their wing and tail feathers all at once and so are flightless for several weeks.

How to Identify it:  Long bill, gray back, white spotted undersides

This bird is most often seen teetering, bobbing its tail up and down,  on a rocky cobble stream edge, picking up small invertebrates from the water.  It arrives in April or early May and takes up station along streams, lakeshores and inland marine waters. This bird reverses the usual roles, and it is the females which arrive early and establish territory while the males do most the incubation of the eggs.  It has been noted that some females may lay eggs in as many as 4 different nests for males to take care of.  The young are raised in a ground nest, typically in June, well concealed in thick vegetation near water with streamside willow thickets a favorite location.  The young follow the adults for awhile in August then by mid September the birds are gone, although apparently a few remain along the coastal areas all winter.