As I recall the first bird that "began" my life list of USA birds (I was in grade school, back in the '40s) was American Robin (called robin), then came Blue Jay (called bluejay), Northern Cardinal (called cardinal),Mourning Dove (called, turtle dove) and Rock Pigeon (called, pigeon or barn pigeon), American Crow (called crow),Red-tailed Hawk (called hawk), meadowlark (I did not know that there were eastern and western ones, just meadowlark), oh, and House Sparrow (called sparrow). *This was while we were living in Kansas (a state in the middle of the US), in a little town (200 people) called "Tampa" in the middle of the state. That was pretty much as much as I knew, just the common birds that were around our little town.
Then one day I heard and saw a bird that I had never seen or heard before. I boyhood friend I happen to be with told me it was a "rain crow". *Later found out that this was a name given by the local farmers for the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. *It was said that whenever you heard on calling, it meant that it was going to rain!
Anyway over the years my interest has increased and my bird list for the US is now in the hundreds (off hand, I am not sure what it is (I have to look it up and see!)
*I just looked it up and my USA Life List is 579.
Footnote: I was really amazed in later years to find out that in addition to my "sparrow" there were a whole bunch of other birds called "sparrow", Fox Sparrow, White-throated & White-crowned Sparrow and dozens (maybe hundreds more type of sparrows)! And more amazing, my "sparrow" was not even a sparrow but was some kind of finch!!! And then my "sparrow" was not even a native bird, but brought over here by some European folks!
I have learned a lot over the years, and I imagine that there is still much I can learn. Thanks to all of you for helping me along the way!