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grrlscientist | December 12, 2008tags: Gadwall, Anas strepera, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Gadwall drake, Anas strepera, photographed in Hermann Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200 Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/180s f/1.0 iso400.
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 a dull duck becomes on closer inspection a marvelously subtle beauty, delicately variegated grays and…
grrlscientist | December 11, 2008tags: Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, 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:
A pretty bird but not a hard one: the long tail, black upperparts, chestnut sides, and black-and-white head identify this bird readily enough as a drake Hooded Merganser. What this photo illustrates well,…
grrlscientist | December 10, 2008tags: Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus, photographed at Samish Flats, Skagit County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 22 January 2008 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/1000s f/5.0 at 165.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This bird's slight mistrust of humans bearing lenses provides an excellent opportunity to practice our "bottoms first"…
grrlscientist | December 9, 2008tags: Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Leucosticte tephrocotis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Leucosticte tephrocotis, Photographed at Meadows Campground, Hart's Pass, in the Okanagan of Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Lee Rentz, 19 October 2008.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Undistinguished in shape -- sort of finch-like, sparrow-like, birdish -- but what colors this bird has! The combination of…
grrlscientist | December 8, 2008tags: Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2006 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Now comes a tiny bird, barley bigger than the leaves of the desert hackberry it's perched among. The gray plumage, hint of a wingbar, and conspicuous but broken eyering are characteristic of two common…
grrlscientist | December 7, 2008tags: Fox Sparrow, Passerella iliaca, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Fox Sparrow, Passerella iliaca (sooty form), photographed in the Naches Pass Area, King County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 9 August 2007 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/400s f/5.6 at 300.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Sometimes we take the coward's way out. Instead of rising to the challenge, we let a bird that is at first…
grrlscientist | December 6, 2008tags: Great tit, Parus major, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Great tit, Parus major, photographed in Helsinki, Finland. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: GrrlScientist, 24 November 2008 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Chickadees all look alike: chubby, rather long-tailed little birds with fluffy plumage, big heads, and black-and-white faces. In North America, our chickadees are a colorless lot, only Chestnut-sided straying from…
grrlscientist | December 5, 2008tags: birding, bird watching, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Vermilion Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus, 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:
Neatly hidden away in the mesquite leaves, this bird's tail isn't going to be of much use to us, beyond ruling out any species that is caudally either extravagantly short or long. Those leaves help us as much as they hinder…
grrlscientist | December 4, 2008tags: Female Mountain Bluebird, Sialia currucoides, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Female Mountain Bluebird, Sialia currucoides, photographed on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Eva Gerdts, 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:
Most of us will have identified this bird at a glance -- the challenge is not in the identifying, but in the unraveling of the intellectual process that…
grrlscientist | December 3, 2008tags: Crested Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Crested Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, 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:
Millennia of selective breeding have produced domestic ducks that are meaty, or manageable, or, as in the case of this quiz bird, just goofy.
Mallards have been domesticated for thousands of years, and virtually all…
grrlscientist | December 2, 2008tags: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, photographed at Sabine Woods and Sabine Pass area, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 28 April 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Every birder has a "trigger" bird, and most of us have…
grrlscientist | December 1, 2008tags: Male Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Male Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The challenge of this mystery bird is less to diagnose its identity than to figure out how you identified this fine male Hooded Merganser. The responses from readers point to two very different modes of…
grrlscientist | November 30, 2008tags: Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula, photographed at the east end of Galveston Island, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 April 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The computer screen and middle-aged eyes give an oddly warm cast to what I know…
grrlscientist | November 29, 2008tags: Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea, photographed at High Island, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 11 April 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 500.0mm iso800.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
A blue bird. With a short, broad tail. And a huge bill. This is a male Blue Grosbeak in all his glory.…
grrlscientist | November 28, 2008tags: American Avocet chick, Recurvirostra americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] American Avocet chick, Recurvirostra americana, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2007 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2007:06:01 18:52:32
Exposure Time: 1/159
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:
This bird's downy plumage may not identify it to species, but it leaves no doubt that we are dealing…
grrlscientist | November 27, 2008tags: thanksgiving escape, wild turkey in central park, bob levy
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George, 2008 [larger view].
The photographer writes:
I found the one and only Wild Turkey continuing to forage in Central Park this week. However it was the first time I found him at Turtle Pond which is north of his usual haunts. Apparently he is extending his range. I wonder what powerful motivating force has convinced this bird to remain here alone instead of joining others of his kind outside the city?
grrlscientist | November 27, 2008tags: Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, photographed at 40 Acre Lake, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 28 February 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/50s f/8.0 at 500.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The huge bill, long crest, and lavish tail put us onto the…
grrlscientist | November 25, 2008tags: Penelope Guan, Penelope species, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Unidentified Penelope Guan, Penelope species, photographed in South America [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Indonesian Parrot Project [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The cracids -- chachalacas, guans, and curassows -- are a large family of spectacular gallinaceous birds found in tropical America; large and meaty, they are often under intense hunting…
grrlscientist | November 24, 2008tags: Painted Bunting, Passerina ciris, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Painted Bunting, Passerina ciris, photographed at Pelican Island, A&M Property, Galveston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 April 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 500.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
There are very few bright green birds north of Mexico. This is a fairly…
grrlscientist | November 23, 2008tags: Pileated Woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] photographed in the Big Woods region of eastern Arkansas.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.