bird watching
grrlscientist | October 27, 2008tags: Lincoln's Sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lincoln's Sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, photographed in Manhattan, Kansas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Dave Rintoul, 25 October 2008 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Take a good look at this bird: have you ever seen anything more beautiful? "Sparrows" are dismissed by too many birders as difficult and dull, when in fact they are neither.
Well,…
grrlscientist | October 26, 2008tags: American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2007 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2007:03:09 09:10:55
Exposure Time: 1/1250
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Since I know this bird is easy for you guys, I am going to ask you to tell me what you think the bird is doing, standing there like that with its wings standing straight up.
Rick Wright…
grrlscientist | October 25, 2008tags: Neotropical Cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Neotropical Cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2006 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2006:10:01 07:47:53
Exposure Time: 1/249
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Look carefully at this bird's right foot, and you'll see that the web actually includes all four…
grrlscientist | October 24, 2008tags: mystery bird, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2005 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2005:12:10 08:20:56
Exposure Time: 1/400
F-Number: 7.10
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
What seems at first regard a completely straightforward identification leads us down a tangled path indeed. Nearly everyone will have…
grrlscientist | October 23, 2008tags: Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2005 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2005:04:26 15:20:04
Exposure Time: 1/124
F-Number: 16.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Forget the bird -- what on earth is that plant? We're used to woodpeckers clambering about in good solid trees: Red-headeds…
grrlscientist | October 22, 2008tags: Worm-eating Warbler, Helmitheros vermivorus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Worm-eating Warbler, Helmitheros vermivorus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Yes, there's a bird in there, and yes, it's identifiable. As a great American poet once observed, all too rarely do the birds we see in the open look / like their pictures in the birdy-books; the views…
grrlscientist | October 21, 2008tags: Common Goldeneye, Bucephala clangula, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Common Goldeneye, Bucephala clangula, photographed in Arizona Fremont, California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Collin M Jensen, 25 April 2008 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
A brown duck. The fact that the plumage comprises solid blocks of color rather than complex patterns makes this a diving duck, and the largely white sides and breast should…
grrlscientist | October 20, 2008tags: Black-throated Magpie-Jay, Calocitta colliei, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black-throated Magpie-Jay, Calocitta colliei,, photographed in Mexico [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright.
This mystery bird quiz has a twist: Name ten other bird species that share this mystery bird's habitat. Or, to put it another way, if you see this species while out birding, what other species are likely to also appear on your bird list for this area? Hint: to answer this quiz, you have to correctly identify this bird, learn where its range is and identify…
grrlscientist | October 19, 2008tags: Northern Saw-Whet Owl, Aegolius acadicus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Northern Saw-Whet Owl, Aegolius acadicus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2007 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2007:01:03 16:32:23
Exposure Time: 1/60
F-Number: 11.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
I think it's an ash, but whatever the identity of the foliage, those would have to be mighty leaves indeed were…
grrlscientist | October 18, 2008tags: Lesser Nighthawk, Chordeiles acutipennis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lesser Nighthawk, Chordeiles acutipennis, photographed at Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix, Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2005 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2005:07:12 07:24:54
Exposure Time: 1/60
F-Number: 16.00
ISO: 200
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Cryptic of plumage, large of eye, tiny of bill, this can only be a nightjar. The folded wingtip reaches more or less to the tip of the tail -- hard to…
grrlscientist | October 17, 2008tags: Yellow-billed Loon, Gavia adamsii, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Yellow-billed Loon, Gavia adamsii, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2008 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2008:05:23 06:41:10
Exposure Time: 1/350
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 320
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Here's a long, lean bird floating low in the water. All waterfowl -- in the strict sense: ducks, geese, swans -- are obviously more buoyant, and with the exception of the larger mergansers, obviously…
grrlscientist | October 16, 2008tags: Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 January 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/160s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
What a sweet bird, friendly-looking and gentle! From near-extinction less than a century ago, this species has rebounded in its North American range to be the most abundant breeding duck…
grrlscientist | October 15, 2008tags: House Sparrow, English Sparrow, Passer domesticus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] House (English) Sparrow, Passer domesticus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2006 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2006:12:27 10:51:37
Exposure Time: 1/159
F-Number: 9.00
ISO: 400
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is an oddly shaped bird. We might at first have thought it was an emberizid sparrow, all streaky and brown, but if we start at the rear, we find a strikingly inadequate…
grrlscientist | October 14, 2008tags: Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, photographed in Hermann Park Lagoon, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 December 2005 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/160s f/8.0 at 500.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is a fine image of the bill color and pattern of Lesser Scaup: note how the jet black of the bill tip is strictly limited to the nail, with no "bleed" to the sides. The…
grrlscientist | October 13, 2008tags: Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, photographed in Oakland, California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 December 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Push me into a corner and I guess I'd call this a Greater Scaup. The bill is very broad, and the black, though it doesn't reach the edge of the bill, does "bleed" outwards from the…
grrlscientist | October 12, 2008tags: Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, photographed at Oakland, California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 December 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Another scaup to light my way to the fall! This bird's full nape continues without a break or notch to the high point of the crown, which is above or perhaps even slightly ahead of the…
grrlscientist | October 11, 2008tags: Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 14 March 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
I wish that I could see the tail of this bird. But even without that, we can tell that we're looking at a diving duck: the head and body are clad in great monotone swaths rather…
grrlscientist | October 10, 2008tags: Pine Siskin, Carduelis pinus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pine Siskin, Carduelis pinus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2008 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2008:04:16 08:46:29
Exposure Time: 1/319
F-Number: 5.60
ISO: 320
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Start at the back, start at the back! We see a short-tailed bird with a long wingtip, and both wing and tail show yellow: simple feather edgings in the wing, but a significant basal patch in the tail. Off the…
grrlscientist | October 9, 2008tags: Inca Dove, Columbina inca, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Inca Dove, Columbina inca, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2005 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2005:03:26 18:18:03
Exposure Time: 1/25
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 800
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Aww! This bird just looks small and harmless, like a baby bird that's lost its momma (more about that below). That said, I'm at a momentary loss as to how I'd go about identifying it if I didn't know the species well…
grrlscientist | October 8, 2008tags: Peach-faced Lovebird, Agapornis roseicollis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Feral Peach-faced Lovebird, Agapornis roseicollis, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2008 [larger view].
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
It was a cold, windy day at New Jersey's Sandy Hook, and our teeth chattered and our eyes teared as we stood knee-high in snow, taking turns at the scope that held the image of a juvenile Gyrfalcon. Suddenly there came a jeering scream from the sky above us,…