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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in OpenLab2009.
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Topic Categories: Birding • Humor • Mystery Birds • Ornithology • Photography
Posted on: January 31, 2009 9:59 AM, by "GrrlScientist"
tags: mystery bird, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] photographed on the island of Labrador. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Orphaned [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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Comments
Aaah, cute.
And happy birthday!
Posted by: Bob O'H | January 31, 2009 10:55 AM
Dog. Based on wet nose.
Posted by: Greg Laden | January 31, 2009 10:56 AM
Online, nobody knows if you are a dog. Or a bird. Or a chimaera.
Happy birdday!
Posted by: Coturnix | January 31, 2009 11:08 AM
I'd vote bird, based on the preponderance of feathers - that's just down, not fur, on the face.
Happy Birthday!
Posted by: PEM | January 31, 2009 11:18 AM
Oh, that's one of those rare Amazon Dogheaded Parrots you hear about!
Happy Birthday!
Posted by: Bardiacblogger | January 31, 2009 11:33 AM
er. wow, are hybrids like that fertile? Do they have 'hybrid vigor'?
By the way, Happy birthday.
Posted by: llewelly | January 31, 2009 11:34 AM
Great composite image! Happy birthday, GrrlScientist.
Posted by: Larry Ayers | January 31, 2009 11:43 AM
Happy Birthday!
Posted by: afarensis | January 31, 2009 11:47 AM
(blushes) thanks for the birdday wishes everyone, but you still have to identify the mystery bird!
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | January 31, 2009 11:49 AM
Happy birthday & thanks for the present!
Posted by: Robert | January 31, 2009 11:50 AM
Birdog.
Have a happy!
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | January 31, 2009 11:50 AM
Well it’s not a parrotweiller, but a close cousin I suspect.
Happy birthday
Posted by: Chris' Wills | January 31, 2009 12:04 PM
That's the rare and elusive Dogheaded Conure, Aratinga caniceps. Field mark: the distinctive periwinkle hue of the feet.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | January 31, 2009 12:10 PM
It looks like a giant green fragrant parrot, so it might be a dog-parrot, Strigops canis. The first description of the species was by James Cook:
'... [it] clambers up and down trees because it cannot fly ... it barks like a dog and smells like a posy of wet grasses... it allows itself to be picked up and handled without concern, and will willingly chase any stick thrown for it' (Cook 1766, p. 69)
Posted by: Bob O'H | January 31, 2009 12:14 PM
Sven, the layman's name for this beauty is the Red Winged Labradorian Parrot
Posted by: Gindy | January 31, 2009 12:15 PM
Happy Birthday! Have you read the kids' Catwing series by Ursula Leguin?
Posted by: Lilian Nattel | January 31, 2009 12:52 PM
Happy birthday. The mystery bird? Somebody else beat me to it.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | January 31, 2009 1:09 PM
Clearly an Epauletted Weimaramacaw. There are similar species, mostly of the Beageagle genus, but nothing else so aggrievedly patient with human antics as the Weimaramacaw. Other, non-jiz fieldmarks: pale eyes, burgundy nose.
Happy birthday! I hope you got one as a gift. A patient, long-suffering parrot who would fetch seems the perfect housemate to me.
Posted by: Her Reference Ron Sullivan | January 31, 2009 1:36 PM
Self-portrait? Admittedly, my mental image of you is nothing like that, but as this is your birdogday, then, well, maybe, just maybe…
Posted by: blf | January 31, 2009 1:47 PM
Now you mention it, blf, that wing does look like it's fractured.
Posted by: Bob O'H | January 31, 2009 2:29 PM
That's a bird dog that went over to the dark side.
Think most of your respondents didn't click the "larger view" link and see the red crowned yellow headed woodpecker posted there.
Happy Birthday.
Love your mystery birds.
Posted by: Allan Hannon | January 31, 2009 2:30 PM
Great photo of the Mystery Bird! I always look forward to the photos you post on your blog.
Happy Birthday, GrrlScientist! May this coming year be even better than your last!
Posted by: Heather | January 31, 2009 2:33 PM
That is a Red Blazoned Norwegian Green Parrot. It's closely related to the more famous Norwegian Blue. You will notice that the Norwegian Green has a pensive look. It is probably pining for the fjords.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself | January 31, 2009 3:51 PM
Oh, and happy birthday.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself | January 31, 2009 3:54 PM
It's fun now, sure, but what about when someone pokes his eye out? What about then?
I shall endeavor to maintain the dignity of the proceeding by making an actual guess. I think the droll photoshoppers at worth1000 might have used a Red-shouldered Macaw for the source image.
The "larger image" is a really pretty shot of an adult male Golden-fronted Woodpecker.
Thanks for all the mystery birds, which are like a new present every day. Happy birthday!
Posted by: John Callender | January 31, 2009 4:06 PM
you all are so sweet, my peeps! you all -- my readers and SB colleagues and PZ's many wonderful readers too! -- make it all so worthwhile and you all keep me going. truly, i can't do this without you, your support and the many kindnesses that you do for me.
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | January 31, 2009 4:30 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb-4cmjTA1s
He's a bird dog.
Posted by: Cuttlefish | January 31, 2009 6:20 PM
Happy Birdday! :-)
I'm still writing that grant application. (Due next week...) Then, all going well, I have a few months of (paid!) research work on a hobby-horse of mine. Hoping that will lead to more of the same. (The ups and downs of being an freelance scientist/consultant...!)
Hope you're well on your B-Day.
PS: Great picture of a birog. Perhaps the leanan sídhe, or biróg, are powerful animagi and those with rare talent for animal and bird life see their hybrid forms?
Posted by: DeafScientist | January 31, 2009 6:20 PM
Happy Birthday, Grrrrrrrrrrl!
Big wet kisses for you.
Posted by: JanieBelle | January 31, 2009 6:57 PM
Canis Zygodactylis
Posted by: kamaka | January 31, 2009 7:49 PM
Happy Birthday!
Posted by: The Ridger | January 31, 2009 8:19 PM
Happy Birthday
It's that famous and rare Labrador Red-Winged Retriever
Posted by: reggie | January 31, 2009 8:37 PM
Happy Birthday!
the wet nose, clear blue eyes and the red splashes on the wings clearly identify this as the very endangered carolina labrakeet.
Posted by: peter | January 31, 2009 8:45 PM
Canary, obviously. Happy birthday.
Posted by: Tualha | January 31, 2009 9:03 PM
Wishing you a Happy Birthday and a much better year ahead!
Posted by: Tziporah | January 31, 2009 10:25 PM
hmmm Tricky.
I would say, yes, it resembles a Weimaramacaw.
But being from the isle of labrador, is it a labradorian paradox?
^^ Of course in Australia we have a similar, but probably much more venomous critter. Almost every farmer has a dogatoo.
Posted by: Hugh M. | February 1, 2009 7:29 AM
Aww, John Callender beat me to it (by a whole day), but he left out field marks. Gold spot on back of neck for Golden-Fronted Woodpecker, gold spot on top of beak for adult and read spot on top of head for male.
Posted by: Don Smith, FCD | February 1, 2009 2:04 PM
Happy belated birthday!
Posted by: David Harmon | February 1, 2009 2:09 PM
It is, of course, from the less well-known western atlantic population of the Northern Blue Parrot superspecies. Better known is the eastern form, the Norwegian Blue that is, sadly, an ex-parrot, having gone to join the choir invisibule ca. 1973. The Labrador Blue does not have quite the same beautiful plumage, but there again the plumage don't enter into to it.
Do not under any circumstances nail its feet to the perch, as this may have been the reason for the extinction of its close relative.
Ps. Happy birthday.
Posted by: John M. | February 1, 2009 3:46 PM