Field guide to the Wild Songbirds of North America

Holidays can be so hard for the Top 40-challenged.

Whether you’re faced with making small talk at the annual office party or presented with a wish list of CDs from your trendy teen, it’s tough to cop an air of confidence when you can’t remember which Simpson has dark hair and acid reflux.

We’re here to help.

Clip out this handy-dandy field guide to pop music’s reigning princesses. Keep it with you. Refer to it early and often, and we promise you’ll never make the devastating gaffe of confusing a Lohan with a Duff.

Ascending titian overexposus

Common name: Lindsay Lohan

Call: “Why can’t you just let me do the things I want to do?” (“Rumors”)

Plumage: Extreme-plunge halter tops, excessive lip gloss and her most distinctive attribute –red hair.

Habitat: Once seen most frequently in teen-friendly movies such as “Mean Girls” and “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen,” Lohan’s success as a niche entertainer has led her to branch out into projects ranging from hosting “Saturday Night Live” to releasing an album of featherweight dance-pop. She also regularly inhabits the pages of tabloids, which catalog her long-running feud with Hilary Duff (see below) as well as recent alleged screaming fits in airports and on the phone to ex-boyfriends.

Best spot for sightings: In stores beginning Tuesday when her album “Speak” goes on sale. Until then, she can be spotted stealing Janet Jackson’s dance moves by way of Britney Spears in her “Rumors” video on MTV.

Ladyofsoul prematurus

Common name: Ashanti

Call: “I’ll do what I gotta do to keep you to myself.” (“Only U”)

Plumage: Dazzling and ever-changing array of ghetto fabulous and film noir screen siren outfits; excessive lip gloss.

Habitat: Raised under the wing of rap star-maker Irv Gotti, Ashanti was first identified through high-profile duets with Ja Rule (“Always on Time”) and Fat Joe (“What’s Luv?”). After a multiplatinum debut album, the sweet-voiced R&B songbird was named “Lady of Soul” at the 2002 Soul Train awards – sparking a controversy over whether she had accomplished enough in her career to receive the honor. After a lackluster 2003 follow-up, Ashanti is on an all-out media blitz for her upcoming disc in hopes it re-establishes her as the R&B starlet most likely to be mistaken for Beyonce.

Best spot for sightings: On the cover of Vibe, on MTV and, with the Dec. 14 release of heavily hyped “Concrete Rose,” just about everywhere except your sock drawer.

Soprano bootiliciousness

Common name: Ciara

Call: “Strut my stuff, yes, I flaunt it.” (“1, 2, Step”)

Plumage: Extreme-plunge halter tops, jeans, hot pants and other dancewear; excessive lip gloss.

Habitat: Ciara is rarely seen alone, choosing to travel instead in a flock of similarly attired dancers or with duet partners Petey Pablo (in her hit “Goodies”) and Missy Elliott (rapping in her latest single, “1, 2, Step”). The 18-year-old Atlanta singer is most easily identified by her thin, little-girl singing voice and phat, very grown-up girl outfits and dance moves.

Best spot for sightings: Crowned as this year’s Southern rap/R&B crossover It Girl, Ciara is likely to linger on the Billboard charts until the next Next Big Thing takes her spot.

Housewife unconvincingus

Common name: Britney Spears

Call: “Everybody’s talkin’ all this stuff about me, why don’t they just let me live?” (“My Prerogative”)

Plumage: When working, most likely to appear in stripper wear topped with furry or feathery bolero jackets. During her leisure time, Spears is most likely to be sporting hooker wear topped with a trucker hat and ill-advised earrings. Excessive lip gloss is exhibited in both states.

Habitat: After dominating the pop charts and tabloids for half a decade, overexposure and a knee injury this summer persuaded Spears to retreat from the limelight and live “normally” for a while. Following her recent marriage to dancer Kevin Federline, the platinum pop tart has on her Web site been spouting both poetry and her desire to start a family as soon as possible.

Best spot for sightings: In Billboard’s top 10, thanks to her new greatest hits compilation.

Simpsonus maximus

Common name: Jessica Simpson

Call: “Huh?”

Plumage: Designer duds and classy, more upscale takes on the top 40 pop tart look; excessive lip gloss.

Habitat: MTV’s “The Newlyweds” gave ditzy Simpson and boy band refugee husband Nick Lachey more success and exposure than their B-list pop music careers ever could have. She has since expanded her habitat into network TV, arena tours, a successful edible cosmetics line called Dessert and an upcoming clothing line, as well as the silver screen in a 2005 movie version of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” (Yes, she’s Daisy Duke. Like, duh.)

Best spot for sightings: On store shelves everywhere, thanks to the release of “ReJoyce: The Christmas Album.” (No, Jessica isn’t that spelling-challenged — the album’s title is a tribute to her grandma, Joyce.)

Simpsonus minimus

Common name: Ashlee Simpson

Call: Depends on what button her drummer presses (synchronized lip movements optional).

Plumage: Easily distinguished from her older sister by her dark brown tresses, she also tends to wear less revealing outfits than other species, favoring jeans and boy-cut T-shirts (for which she is occasionally mistaken as a Lavigne).

Habitat: After dominating pop radio for much of the summer thanks to hit single “Pieces of Me,” Simpson’s debut album “Autobiography” has been doing a slow slide off the Billboard charts. Indications are that a backlash over her pre-recorded October nonperformance on “Saturday Night (Not So) Live,” which she blamed initially (and unconvincingly) on voice problems from acid reflux disease, may be fueling the decline in sales – but not before she moved more than 3 million copies.

Best spot for sightings: In year-end blooper reels, endlessly replaying her lip-synch snafu.

Rockchickus featherweightus

Common name: Avril Lavigne

Call: “No, I’m not lip-synching.”

Plumage: Last year began molting previous wardrobe of baggy jeans, tank tops and occasional necktie; now appears in corsets, flouncy thrift store skirts and T-shirts emblazoned with punk rock band logos. Excessive eyeliner remains unchanged.

Habitat: Initially seen in skateboard parks, taped to middle school locker doors and eye-rolling at grown-up events such as the Grammys, Lavigne flourished everywhere as her 2002 debut album “Let Go” took off. After holing up in a studio to record its follow-up, this year’s 3-million-selling “Under My Skin,” she has since contained her territory to live music venues, MTV and the occasional mall acoustic tour. Lavigne’s most recent public appearances have been to dis Ashlee Simpson for lip-synching, something the pop-punk queen assures fans she’ll never do.

Best spot for sightings: She can be found regularly on MTV’s “TRL” in her video for “Nobody’s Home,” and also can be heard singing the theme to the “The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie.”

Rockchickus superfeatherweightus

Common name: Hilary Duff

Call: “You want my friends/You want my clothes. You’re one of those haters.” (“Haters”)

Plumage: Sensible, age-appropriate jeans and miniskirts with occasional display of high heels. Excessive lip gloss.

Habitat: Duff is Avril-extra-lite, the tween fantasy of a “Girl Can Rock.” Her self-titled sophomore album has sold more than a million copies and continues to exhibit staying power, in part thanks to parental approval of Duff’s squeaky-clean image – which has survived a tabloid-fodder feud with Lohan over their shared ex-boyfriend, Aaron Carter.

Best spot for sightings: In the DVD section, with last month’s release of “Learning to Fly” perfectly timed for holiday gift-giving – as are so many other pop princess products. Funny how that works, isn’t it?