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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 • Travel
Posted on: November 10, 2009 9:59 AM, by "GrrlScientist"
tags: Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens, photographed at San Rafael, California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 25 December 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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Comments
Love those birdie butts!
Posted by: Tziporah | November 10, 2009 11:31 AM
Oh Grrl, you gave this away yesterday when you showed what is probably the same bird in the same tree (American Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua)... this is a Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens: dark gray wing feathers, underparts white to pale grayish-white, with rufous flanks... this is probably the subspecies P. r. neglectus whose range is coastal central California (Marin County) and specifically has relatively narrow rufous bands on the flanks.
The other two subspecies are: the nominate rufescens ranging from Alaska south to northwest California (broad rufous bands on flanks); and barlowi whose range is coastal southwestern California, south of San Francisco Bay (almost no rufous color on flanks)
Posted by: David | November 10, 2009 4:52 PM
(p.s. San Rafael is in Marin County, California)
Posted by: David | November 10, 2009 4:57 PM
I also immediately spotted the weird seed-pod thingies hanging from the tree in both pictures, and color of the feathers to the left of the tail and under the wings can also be found on the front view of the bird in the earlier picture. Not enough to prove it's the same bird, but that's the way I'm going to bet.
Posted by: Paul | November 10, 2009 8:30 PM
I have that same tree species in my front yard (no chestnut-backed chickadees this far south, but I'll go with that for the ID, too).
Cute shot. :-)
Posted by: John Callender | November 10, 2009 10:56 PM
david; yeah, i know, but then decided that none of my mystery bird people reads my relocation essays, but i guessed wrong, didn't i?
but i ask myself; what's cuter than a birdie butt? so i had to share the image anyway.
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | November 11, 2009 7:38 AM
LOL Grrl, but remember I am not an ornithologist but a biophiliac and "intuitive naturalist" and so color, shadow, vegetation, context, location, psychology, and an obsession for getting it right all play a part! (I guess that is why I prefer the obscure, the non-American/European, and the investigative mystery species more than glamor shots of a Chipping Sparrow- LOL!)
Posted by: David | November 11, 2009 9:07 AM
i love digging up those images, david, so i will be asking my photography colleagues for more of those to give you something challenging. thanks for the guidance.
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | November 11, 2009 11:52 AM