I'm a longtime birdwatcher/nature enthusiast and familiar with the more common species. I used to turn to my field guide books when stumped, but now use iPhone's "Visual Look Up" feature to find suggested matches for subjects in my photos. Sometimes VLU's suggestions are way off the mark and further searches are needed to narrow it down.

If you have an iPhone you can use Visual Look Up to help identify just about anything. I look at the feature's results as suggestions, not the final word on identification.