Mystery Bird: Red-footed Booby, Sula sula

grrlscientist — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:59:42 +0000

tags: Red-footed Booby, Sula sula, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

~~[Mystery bird]~~ Red-footed Booby, Sula sula, photographed on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Midway Island, Hawai'i. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joe Fuhrman, March 2010 [larger view].

NOTE: Unless you are a beginning bird watcher, PLEASE wait 24 hours before identifying this bird. (Intermediate-expert birders are encouraged to use puns, anagrams, poetry references or citations, Monty Python quotes or anything else that tickles your fancy to indicate you've identified this species during the first 24 hours after the image pops up. Thank you.) Everyone -- even beginning birders! -- PLEASE name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

Review all mystery birds to date.

grrlscientist Tue, 03/23/2010 - 04:59

How very, very beautiful. The beauty of birds is one of the most important elements of my life.

I enjoy the variety of exchanges here, the clever references, the repartee, the beyond-bird knowledge that makes me think outside the field guides. People who prefer ID-only quizzes will find plenty of those in other online fora. This exchange is uniquely wonderful just as it is, and I look forward to reading it every day, and contributing when I can.

TITS! =P

Well, it's not a tit, that's for sure.

I'm a pretty new birder and very new to the site, so my obscure version of the bird ID isn't very good. (Good compromise?)

Some birdies have red booties;
Some birds have blue
But these plunge-diving beauties
Are my favorites, it's true...

Their colors so variable
Can make ID hard;
But red feet, reliable,
and oft seen from afar.

Wishing he wore shoes instead of the open flip-flops, he shifted the focus of the scope from the lava outcrops to
a hidden niche beyond the black sand beach. There they were,
same as yesterday, several of them splayed out on the sand. Ignoring his burning toes, he steadied the small camera up against the eyepiece, staring intently and thinking... "Nice boobies".

Concorde, either taking off or landingâthe dropped nose and lowered landing gear are the main clews. However, the wings don't look quite right, and it seems to be having trouble with its tail assembly.

What a GREAT shot!

I like Jana's poem! We have a new wit to help us bird :)

It has a coat of white
and a bill of blue,
but it's this fool's feet
that have the diagnostic hue.

tits!