ornithology
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: 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.
grrlscientist | November 22, 2008tags: Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Steve Sosensky [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
It's always a good idea to figure out just what parts of the bird you're seeing; it isn't always obvious. This chunky, lax-plumaged waterbird is in profile, with its aft end to the right and its breast at…
grrlscientist | November 21, 2008tags: Pied-billed Grebe chick, Podilymbus podiceps, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pied-billed Grebe chick, Podilymbus podiceps, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
You probably don't know that these photos are usually sent to me without the "answer." But like most of you, I knew right away what this worth-two-in-the-bush nub of stringy fluff was; or did I…
grrlscientist | November 20, 2008tags: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, birds, bird ID quiz, mystery bird
[Mystery bird] Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 11 March 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s 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:
Look at that tail! The elegant black-and-white patterning of this duck told us at first glance…
tetrapodzoology | November 20, 2008Back in 2006 I took part in the 'ten birds' meme. If infected (do people normally speak of being 'infected' by memes?), you were supposed to write about ten birds that you found 'beautiful'. I decided to distort it slightly and make the birds the ten that I found most 'beautifully interesting'. Here's one of them, the others may or may not follow too.
Originally described by DeVis in 1890 as Todopsis kowaldi, Ifrita was independently 'discovered' by Walter Rothschild in 1898 and named by him Ifrita coronata. A passerine endemic to moist montane forests on New Guinea, Ifrita is remarkable for…
grrlscientist | November 19, 2008tags: Cassin's Kingbird, Tyrannus vociferans, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Cassin's Kingbird, Tyrannus vociferans, photographed in the central Sonora of 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:
Sometimes it's the lousy views that are the most instructive, and this view -- so lousy as to be nearly impolite -- is chockfull of information that most of the standard field guides won't…
grrlscientist | November 18, 2008tags: Phainopepla, Phainopepla nitens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Female Phainopepla, Phainopepla nitens photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2006 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2006:05:21 06:26:05
Exposure Time: 1/249
F-Number: 13.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
There are birds that are instantly recognizable once we "know" them, but those same species can be puzzling when encountered…
grrlscientist | November 17, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Sanderlings, Calidris alba, at Bolivar Flats, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 24 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400 .
Birds in Science
Birdsong is the primary model system that helps scientists understand how the brain produces complex sequences of learned behavior, such as playing the piano. In songbirds, there are many interconnected brain regions that play specific and important role in the production of song. It was hypothesized…
grrlscientist | November 17, 2008tags: Hoatzin, Opisthocomus hoazin, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Hoatzin, Opisthocomus hoazin, 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:
Are these real birds? As anyone who has enjoyed a slow cruise along a South American river will attest, they are real -- so real that they have been made the national bird of Guyana.
The mangrove thicket…
grrlscientist | November 16, 2008tags: African Scops-Owl, Otus senegalensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Scops-Owl, Otus senegalensis, photographed in subsaharan Africa. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Thomas Dressler, 2008.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
I'm at a loss. I know where this bird was photographed, and so I know what it has to be, but I fail miserably at the little test I like to set myself: could I identify this bird correctly if I discovered it…
grrlscientist | November 15, 2008tags: Male Von der Decken's Hornbill, Tockus deckeni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Male Von der Decken's Hornbill, Tockus deckeni, endemic to savanna and woodland of sub-Saharan Africa. Photographed in the African Bird Safari at London Zoo. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 September 2008 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
What a crazy-looking bird this one is! With that huge bill and long tail, it can only be…
grrlscientist | November 14, 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 1/125s 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:
This bird is closely related to the cardinals, as a…
grrlscientist | November 13, 2008tags: Henslow's Sparrow, Ammodramus henslowii, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Henslow's Sparrow, Ammodramus henslowii, photographed in Manhattan, Kansas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Dave Rintoul, 2007 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is a small, medium-tailed, fat-bodied, big-headed, huge-billed sparrow. And that's probably enough: many birders would be able to identify this bird just from that description without…
grrlscientist | November 12, 2008tags: Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Stelgidopteryx serripennis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Stelgidopteryx serripennis, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2006 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2006:03:12 09:45:40
Exposure Time: 1/249
F-Number: 14.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Look at those wings! They're obviously long, and we can roughly quantify their…