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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 • Education • Mystery Birds • Photography • Teaching
Posted on: July 20, 2009 9:59 AM, by "GrrlScientist"
tags: Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus, photographed at roughly 9am in the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Bardiac, 7 June 2009 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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Comments
oh, it's Jim. I was wondering where he got to. I was waiting for him by the pond for 2 hours yesterday, and he never showed up.
To be honest, I'm a bit surprised he wasn't photographed in a bar.
Posted by: Bob O'H | July 20, 2009 10:54 AM
I'm going with sharp-tailed grouse for this one. The plumage looks about right when I zoom in for the larger view, and the location would seem to exclude the two prairie-chickens.
Posted by: John Callender | July 20, 2009 12:03 PM
I agree with the Sharp-tailed call. Prairie Chickens are all barred underneath (even if the location didn't rule them out). This is in eastern Montana, with little if anything in the way of woods, so even without the plumage we can rule out Blue, Spruce, and Ruffed Grouse. And a Pheasant would have a longer bill, and would lack the streaking underneath. I believe the red just above the lores is also a mark against Pheasant.
Posted by: psweet | July 21, 2009 5:06 PM