My Benchmark bird is/was the Yellow Breasted Chat.
When I was a Boy Scout at summer camp many, many yrears ago, back in
Indiana, I decided to work on the Bird Stdy merit badge. We had a
counselor who took us on hikes early each morning looking for birds.
One day we heard a glorious song coming from the top of a tree and we
spotted a patch of yellow way up there. I guess he sat there singing
all morning long. We identified it as a Yellow Breasted Chat. Now, I
was a young lad growing up on a farm where there were lots of birds.
I thought I knew them all, but that little yellow bird made a bird
"watcher" out of me. I have been at it off and on ever since and I
still don't know them all!

Ed Lamb, Bellevue, WA