Monday, December 28, 2009

Happy New Year!


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This is NOT a quiz picture! The next quiz picture will be posted at 1 am MST on 4 January 2010.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Quiz #329 (2009-4-11) Answer


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Answer by Kevin Kerr and Tony Leukering

The last quiz of the quarter and the year and what an odd one! I liked a part of Aaron Brees' response, so have provided it below.

"This is a weird picture if you don't know what is coming.

Reactions:
1. gannet with fish
2. enlarged the photo; gannet with small black and white bird (alcid?) in its bill
3. no, that is a loon head...how did a gannet get hold of a decapitated loon head?
4. oh...the loon is swimming behind the gannet in a wave trough that hides most of the bird
5. reaction #3 was pretty stupid."

Kevin Kerr provided a more thorough analysis, so we'll continue with his thoughts.

"Let's start with the more obvious bird in this picture. It is nicely posed, unobstructed, and can be quickly identified as a sulid. The mostly white body, tidy black mask, blue eye, and subtly yellow-tinged head are perfect for Northern Gannet (no other gannets occur in the ABA area, though the limited distribution of black on the wings should eliminate them, anyway).

"So now on to the more challenging question: what bird is that gannet eating? Or, whose head has been digitally superimposed on this image? Okay, there isn't much showing, but it's apparent that we're looking at just the head of a diving bird poking out of the water. The shape of it (elongated, with an angled crown that appears to sag just a little in the centre [ah, those Brit-types never could spell; I mean, what's with all those extra 'u's in words like 'color?']) reveals that it is a loon and the colour pattern indicates that we are looking at either a juvenile or a winter-plumaged adult. The darkness of the head eliminates Red-throated and Yellow-billed, but the remaining suspects still present an awful challenge.

"Arctic Loon is incredibly difficult to distinguish from Pacific, but the odds of seeing one next to a gannet are so astronomical that I'm comfortable removing this suspect for now. This leaves Common and Pacific, which can still be surprisingly difficult to separate. Common is much more likely (given the company of a gannet), so it wouldbe logical to use that as our null hypothesis and see if there is enough evidence to change our minds.

We cannot see the neck pattern, which is quite unfortunate as that would help a lot! The head shape does not look quite as rounded as I would expect for a Pacific Loon (recall the sagging centre mentioned above). The dark cap does draw to mind Pacific (contrasting highly with the white underparts and appearing not to extend below the eye), but closer inspection reveals a lighter area above the eye and a general patchiness to the dark areas (more consistent with Common). I would also expect white ear coverts if it were a Pacific, whereas our bird is dark here, too. Lastly, the gannet, which is in the foreground, is a big bird. Pacific is at best a medium-sized loon and, although only the head is showing, I suspect that a Pacific would look dwarfed beside this larger seabird. Given the available evidence, I will have to settle on Common Loon."

Thanks, Kevin. However, I disagree with one of his theses: that it would be odd to see an Arctic Loon next to a Northern Gannet. It certainly might be in the New World, but the two are broadly sympatric in the eastern North Atlantic. It would actually be much rarer to find Pacific Loon and Northern Gannet together and it may be more reasonable to throw out Pacific on that basis. Regardless, I believe that both Arctic [note: TWO 'c's] and Pacific loons are eliminated on the head/neck pattern and coloration. Our bird shows an extension of dark coloration from the auriculars down to the edge of the throat. Both of the medium-sized loons should show pale auriculars. Though Pacific Loon does usually sport a chin strap, the connection to the dark of the head is nowhere near as extensive as might be suggested by our bird's dark protrusion toward the throat. Additionally, the head's blockiness would probably be extreme for Pacific Loon, though within the range of that of Arctic Loon.

I photographed this Adult Northern Gannet and basic-plumaged Common Loon off New Jersey on 9 November 2009. The loon is actually on the water's surface; its body is mostly hidden by a 1' swell on a very-light-wind day.

Three respondents got no species incorrect, just didn't provide enough correct ones. additionally, one respondent's answer was precluded from being correct for the competition as it lacked one of the 'n's in 'gannet.' Another's, that would have been correct had the loon been of a different species, would have been precluded from being correct for the competition as it lacked one of the two 'c's in 'arctic.'

Only rarely does anyone get a perfect score in a quarterly competition on the Mr. Bill Mystery Quiz, so it's particularly spectacular that THREE respondents did it this quarter. Thus, I extend hearty congratulations to Kevin Kerr and the Such brothers, Marcel and Joel for accomplishing the feat! Unfortunately, that means that I have to toss a three-sided coin to come up with the actual quarterly champ. As the random pick among the three landed on one of the Such brothers and because I'd like to not be an instigator of family strife, I've decided that Marcel and Joel will share the prize of a year's membership in the Colorado Field Ornithologists.

As for the annual competition, Aaron Brees took sole possession of first place in the second quarter and refused to let go, getting 37 of 50 correct. Four respondents, Mark Dettling; Al Guarente; Robert McNab; and Peter Wilkinson, each got 32 correct. Congratulations to Aaron for winning the annual-competition prize of a registration fee for a Colorado Field Ornithologists' convention.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Pacific Loon - 7
American White Pelican - 1
Arctic Loon - 1

The 16 of 28 providing the correct answer:
Al Guarente
Robert McNab
Kirk Huffstater
Aaron Brees
Tyler Bell
Kevin Kerr
Chris Warren
Su Snyder
Jim Beatty
Jen Vieth
Nick Komar
Barbara Deneen
Nancy Hatch
Peter Wilkinson
Joel Such
Marcel Such

Answer: Northern Gannet, Common Loon

Monday, December 14, 2009

Quiz #328 (2009-4-10) Answer


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Answer by Tony Leukering

This week's quiz bird is obviously a warbler; obvious, at least, to all of our respondents. The bird's coloration and small size makes that a good choice of starting point. Most quickly got to the genus Oporornis, as the fairly strong bill, olive upperparts, yellow underparts, and eye ring all point in that direction. Orange-crowned Warbler has a very fine and slightly decurved bill and neither it nor Wilson's Warbler show such an obvious chest band.

Once into Oporornis, we don't have an easy job of deciding the ID, though we can quickly rule out Kentucky Warbler. We have a huge advantage with this bird, relative to many Oporornis warblers, as the bird is in hand, not skulking about in the understory giving only brief and frustrating views. The bird's eye ring can actually allow us specific ID of the quiz bird, though we'll also tackle other field marks as confirmatory features.

The eye ring is obviously split, at least behind the eye and, probably, in front of the eye. This fact and that the eye ring is not bright white rules out the prince of the group, Connecticut Warbler. With the eye ring being split, we can state that the bird has eye arcs. The eye arcs are thin, very long (that is, each covers a significant chunk of the 180 degrees of its representative half of the potential eye ring), and have a yellowish cast. All of these features are bang-on for Mourning Warbler and quite wrong for MacGillivray's. The confirmatory features include the yellowish rather than grayish throat (ruling out both other options) and the short primary projection (length of the wingtip protruding beyond the tip of the longest tertial), which rules out the very long-winged Connecticut Warbler. I took this picture of an immature Mourning Warbler at Barr Lake S.P., Adams Co., CO, on 25 September 2001; the bird provided only the sixth fall Colorado record.

The leader board has not changed from last week, as all players in the hunt for the quarterly title got this week's quiz correct. Aaron Brees continues to lead all players for the annual competition. One quiz to go for both competitions -- good luck to all!

Incorrect species provided as answers:
MacGillivray's Warbler - 1
Wilson's Warbler - 1
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Connecticut Warbler - 2

The 20 of 25 providing the correct answer:
Tucker Lutter
Robert McNab
Kevin Kerr
Peter Burke
Chris Warren
Tyler Bell
Kirk Huffstater
Marcel Such
Thomas Hall
Jim Beatty
Al Guarente
Andy Dettling
Norma Erickson
Jim Kopitzke
Peter Wilkinson
Margie Joy
Su Snyder
Joel Such
Barbara Deneen
Aaron Brees

Answer: Mourning Warbler

Monday, December 7, 2009

Quiz #327 (2009-4-09) Answer


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Answer by Margie Joy and Tony Leukering

Most repondents spotted that this week's quiz birds were grackles and that the task was to pick the right species, with the vast majority going with one of the two of what I call "big-boy grackles." Margie Joy will start off the solution.

"Even in the dim light of this photo, with birds mainly in silhouette, there are enough clues for ID. Several of the birds have the large, flared tails of male grackles, and there’'s just enough light to show that they are all consistently dark or even black with no obvious marks, and that the eyes are light.

"There are three grackle species in the ABA area: Common, Great-tailed, and Boat-tailed. Following the advice of one of my drawing teachers (play it like the SAT -- do the easiest part first), I looked at the most obvious individuals, the ones with large, flared tails that are at least the length of the body. I ruled out Common Grackle, with its proportionately smaller tail, for those birds. Flattish heads with heavy bills eliminate Boat-tailed Grackle (a species with some individuals, but not all, having dark eyes, so separation by eye color is not reliable as we were not given the location), leaving me with male Great-tailed.

"The smaller birds with not-so-large tails are a bit more difficult; I'm still not 100 percent convinced about all of them. In general, they are smaller than the males, with shorter and narrower tails, typical of female grackles. I think they're all still too big to be Common, so the trick is to decide if they are Great-tailed, like the males; or Boat-tailed; or a mix of both. I can't see the entire head on all of them, but the ones I do see share the flattish head and thick bill shape of the males. So, I am going with Great-tailed Grackle for all."

Good job, Margie! As Kevin Kerr noted, the female in the lower-left quadrant with something in her bill is the individual that we can see best. She sports a
superciliary that helps us to eliminate Common Grackle in her ID and she has the streamlined head shape so typical of Great-tailed and so at odds with the round-headed appearance of Boat-tailed Grackle. Though folks on the East Coast think that Boat-tailed is a big grackle, my recent experience of switching between Colorado and New Jersey gave me a much better feel for the differences between the two big-boy grackles, including the much larger size of Great-tailed. So, if there is a Boat-tailed Grackle in the picture, it should appear noticeably smaller and none of the birds looks smaller to my eye. Additionally, as I took the picture near Barr Lake, Adams Co., CO (in December 2006), any Boat-tailed would have provided a first state record!

With two quizzes to go in the quarterly competition, Kevin Kerr is tied with the
two Such brothers with perfect scores (9 of 9). Six others have 7 of 9 correct;
none have only 8 correct.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Common Grackle - 3
Boat-tailed Grackle - 5
Black-billed Magpie - 1
Common Raven - 1

The 17 of 26 providing the correct answer:
Al Guarente
Kevin Kerr
Andy Dettling
Mark Dettling
George Cresswell
Lynnette Fuller
Ray Davis
Margie Joy
Robert McNab
Su Snyder
Barbara Deneen
Nick Komar
Joe Bens
Tucker Lutter
Aaron Brees
Marcel Such
Joel Such

Answer: Great-tailed Grackle

Monday, November 30, 2009

Quiz #326 (2009-4-08) Answer


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Answer by Tony Leukering

An obvious shorebird, with some important bits invisible: yet another typical Mr. Bill Mystery Quiz. The fuzziness of the picture might not help, either. A first task, after (of course) getting to shorebirds, might be to decide whether it's a larger one or a smaller one. As noted by a couple of respondents, the bird's proportions -- large, chunky body, thin neck, apparently smallish head -- should rule out the peeps (and isn't it nice to not have to deal with the Least Sandpiper/Long-toed Stint dichotomy!) and suggest a larger shorebird of some type. Though many birders would not even try to ID this bird in this posture, we've actually got a lot to go on and can quickly whittle things down to just a few options.

First, there aren't many larger shorebirds with such yellow legs and one of the usual large, buffy shorebirds that comes to mind, Marbled Godwit, is easily ruled out by the leg color. In fact, just utilizing leg color and overall color tone, we might consider only Pectoral, Sharp-tailed, Buff-breasted, and Stilt sandpipers; Ruff; and Wilson's Phalarope. We can quickly rule out Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Wilson's Phalarope, as those two species do not probe, but pick bits of food from the water's surface and/or land. Additional plumage features rule these two species out: lack of black spots at shoulder and dark-centered, rather than gray-centered, scapulars, among others.

Hopefully, no one would confuse our quiz bird with an adult Stilt Sandpiper, but some juvs can be this buffy and the species should be considered. Oops, we should already have considered age! The plethora of buff feather fringes should be all we need to decide that our bird is a juvenile, unless its a Ruff, as some adults sport such fringes, too. But, such birds would not have such a buffy throat and neck, so, regardless, our bird is a juvenile. At this point, we should, perhaps, throw Short-billed Dowitcher into the mix.

Returning to Stilt Sandpiper, even the buffiest-bodied juvs would sport white-fringed lower scapulars. Also, even with much of the bird's head in the water, we see enough of it to see that Stilt Sandpiper's obvious whitish superciliary is not present. Also, the legs have just too much orange aspect for that species. Despite tossing Short-billed Dowitcher into the mix in the previous paragraph, I'm going to quickly throw it back out, as our quiz bird lacks that species' whitish superciliary and would sport more and more-obvious internal markings on the scapulars and tertials.

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper should sport a quite-reddish crown and more-reddish feather fringes on the top side. Pectoral Sandpiper exhibits stronger blackish streaking on the throat and chest than does our quiz bird.

Whoa, lo and behold, we've eliminated all possibilities but one. Sean Fitzgerald took this week's quiz photo of a juvenile Ruff at Edwin B. Forsythe (Brigantine) N.W.R., Atlantic Co., NJ, on 8 October 2008.

One of the incorrect responses would have been considered precluded from being correct for the competition if it had been correct, as it included one too few hyphens and one too many capital letters.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - 1
Buff-breasted Sandpiper - 2
Wilson's Phalarope - 2
Long-billed Dowitcher - 1
Stilt Sandpiper - 4

The 14 of 24 providing the correct answer:
John Bissell
Mark Dettling
Peter Wilkinson
Al Guarente
Peter Burke
Kevin Kerr
Nick Komar
Ira Sanders
Tammy Sanders
Marcel Such
Joe Bens
Tucker Lutter
Robert McNab
Joel Such

Answer: Ruff

Monday, November 23, 2009

Quiz #325 (2009-4-07) Answer


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Answer by Kevin Kerr and Tony Leukering

Wow, lots of birds in this quiz picture! And, with my rep, folks probably spent a lot of time sorting through the birds looking for something hidden amongst all of the Brown-headed Cowbirds. Kevin Kerr sent in another thorough answer, so he will do most of the job of answering this week's quiz.

"Uh oh! It's another one of those pictures. Where's Waldo? The flock is quite sizable this time and more intimidating than say, terns on a dock, or snakes on a plane. I decided that it's time to model a new approach to these pictures, though I suppose this is just a classic approach to identifying large flocks. First, identify an obvious bird, one displaying a good diagnostic profile. Two birds in flight do this nicely: clearly male Brown-headed Cowbirds. A few of their drabber female companions are also in clear view. In fact, at quick glance it appears that most if not all of these birds are Brown-headed Cowbirds. So, now we have a null hypothesis for each individual: it's a Brown-headed Cowbird until proven otherwise.

"But there's got to be more than that, right? Judging by the yellowing plants in the background and fallen leaves, I'm assuming this picture was taken in autumn. Naturally, cowbird flocks are likely to contain other Icterids, so it would be wise to look for such. Any tiger-barred bodies out there? Any bronzed feathers or keel-shaped tails? To the far left, it looks as though a yellow-bordered epaulet is peeking out of the crowd, but alas I think it is just an illusion caused by a blade of grass and not a Red-winged Blackbird. A small brown job facing us in the centre of the photo could be mistaken for a female House Sparrow, but most of the colours aren't right and again, it appears to just be my imagination. Now I'm trying too hard to see species that probably are not there.

"Negative results are inherently difficult to prove, but I cannot find a bird in this photo that displays enough cues to suggest that it is not a Brown-headed Cowbird. So I'll have to conclude that there are no other species present."

Thanks, Kevin. Both of the birds that Kevin mentioned that might be something else (and I thought that if they were something else, they would both be Red-winged Blackbirds), are birds that I noted when looking at the original picture considering whether to use it as a quiz picture as I had intended when I took the picture. In the field, the flock was about 1100 birds strong (this picture depicts only a small percentage of the total flock). There were six Red-winged Blackbirds in the flock, along with a very small smattering of European Starlings and a few Common Grackles. When taking the picture, I purposefully avoided all parts of the flock that sported other species -- I wanted a single-species flock for the picture, which I took in Cape May Point, Cape May Co., NJ, on 15 November 2009. Despite the chance that the two birds are not cowbirds, I believe that I managed to not include anything but Brown-headed Cowbirds in the picture -- what we can see of these two birds is just not enough, in my opinion, to justify identifying a second species.

One respondent's answer was precluded from being correct for the competition, as it included none of the requisite two capital letters.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Shiny Cowbird - 2
Red-winged Blackbird - 2
Brewer's Blackbird - 1
Rusty Blackbird - 2
Rusty/Brewer's Blackbird - 1
Bronzed Cowbird - 1

The 13 of 21 providing the correct answer:
John Bissell
Kevin Kerr
Nick Komar
Ira Sanders
Tammy Sanders
Al Guarente
Mary France
Margie Joy
Barbara Deneen
Marcel Such
JOel Such
Aaron Brees
Chishun Kwong

Answer: Brown-headed Cowbird

Monday, November 16, 2009

Quiz #324 (2009-4-06) Answer


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Answer by Kevin Kerr and Tony Leukering

This week's two-bird quiz did not cause may problems for the regulars, nor for the few newer Mr. Bill Mystery Quiz afficionados. As Kevin Kerr provided a reasonable synopsis of the ID of the two not-so-wee beasties, I'll have him start us off.

"Assuming that I haven't missed something, I think that the identifications are actually fairly straightforward this week, despite the unusual appearance of two overlapping birds. The lower bird is a typical Black Vulture, thus the challenge is to identify the upper bird, whose body is mostly hidden. Luckily, there are lots of clues. The bird clearly associates with Black Vulture, is comparable in size to a Black Vulture, but has relatively pale wing and tail feathers, and with a longer, rounded tail. These features point pretty clearly to Turkey Vulture. Most other dark raptors would feature a banding pattern onthe tail and would be of noticeably difference in size."

Thanks, Kevin.

At this point, I wish to do two things: 1) emphasize Kevin's point about the differing tail shapes and colors (long, rounded, and paler -- with the tail contrasting fairly strongly with the blacker undertail coverts -- in TV, short, square, and blacker -- no contrast to undertail coverts -- in BV) and 2) to elucidate the ID a bit further. While given good views of either species, the identification of these two vulture species is easy, odd lighting, distant views, and other negative impacts on views can lead the unwary down the wrong path. Except under the most backlit of conditions, the pattern of black and pale on the underside of the two is diagnostic, with the black/pale contrast being in the hand (the outer wing) and perpendicular to the wing in BV and the contrast in TV being parallel to the wing. Additionally, though a few respondents noted otherwise, the wing shape of the two species is fairly different, with BV having wider and shorter wings to TV's longer and narrower wings. Finally, the flap style of the two species is radically different, with TV exhibiting a long and somewhat ponderous wing flap and BV an almost comical quick, snappy, almost scared-to-fall-out-of-the-sky wing flap reminiscent of smaller accipiters. The relative wing lengths of the two species are the primary movers and shakers in the causes of these two very different wing flaps.

I photographed these two birds in West Cape May, Cape May Co., NJ, on 19 October 2009 gliding off a thermal. I provide the next picture in sequence, below, as proof positive of the two IDs. of course, if Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture had been on the ABA-area list, the ID of the top bird would have been just a wee bit more difficult!



Incorrect species provided as answers:
Chihuahuan Raven - 1
Ferruginous Hawk - 1
Zone-tailed Hawk - 1

The 18 of 21 providing the correct answer:
Aaron Brees
Kevin Kerr
Al Guarente
Nick Komar
Bryan Guarente
Louie Toth
Marcel Such
Peter Burke
George Cresswell
Margie Joy
Joel Such
Mark Dettling
Peter Wilkinson
Su Snyder
Bob Archer
Jennifer Vieth
Joe Bens
Chishun Kwong

Answer: Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture

Monday, November 9, 2009

Quiz #323 (2009-4-05) Answer


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Answer by Tony Leukering

This week's quiz bird is dark above other than some white on the uppertail coverts and buffy-white fringing to most of the wing feathers. We don't really have much help here in determining the bird's underparts color, but embiggening (thanks, Homer) the picture enables me to see a sliver of the bird's right side and that area looks whitish. The wings also look quite long, but the secondaries look fairly short, as they're mostly covered by the greater coverts. One foot looks somewhat pinkish, but the other looks blackish -- lighting?

The two geese provided as answers by respondents would show much more white at the back end of the body and would not show unmarked white sides. The lack of mottling or other internal markings on the wing coverts rules out virtually all of the gull options and the white side rules out the remaining gull option, Heermann's Gull. Jaegers would be another good group to consider, but even Long-tailed Jaeger should show at least some bright white primary shafts among the outer primaries and the shafts of all or most primaries in all three jaeger species are noticeably paler than those on our quiz bird, though they may not be white. With various larids excised from consideration, we really have no good options outside the Procellariiformes, the tubenoses.

"Ugh," one might say, as most of us don't see those things anywhere nearly often enough to be able to nail this bird going away. But, it's not all that difficult to work through the field guides to the correct answer. I mean, only about 50 species have occurred in the ABA area! And if that's not enough to make one cheer with abandon, we can do some wholescale deletions from that list. First off, we can remove the storm-petrels from consideration -- they don't have the wing length or the plumage pattern exhibited by our quiz bird. That's 13 down. Most albatrosses don't show our bird's topside plumage pattern and all of 'em have even longer wings than does our quiz bird; another eight down. Of course, now that we're into the Procellariidae (petrels and shearwaters), we're into a fairly difficult group, and one that accounts for the remaining 29 ABA-area tubenose species!

Even now, though, we can conduct large-scale removals, and we'll start with all of those species that are not both evenly-dark above (there's little suggstion of the typical Procellariid 'M' on our bird's wings, but it could still be present if it were not particularly contrasty, given the angle of the photo) and with white sides. If we also use our bird's thin white uppertail-covert band as a decision character, then we're left with very few possibilities. In fact, there are so few options that we have actually arrived at our answer: Greater shearwater. At this point, one might opine that it would be nice to be able to use some positive characters to ID our bird, rather than simple process of elimination. Ah, but we have. Our bird's thin white uppertail-covert band is a particularly good field mark for the species. Black-capped Petrel sports a much wider white band proximal from the tail and neither Cory's nor Cape Verde shearwaters are so dark above, nor do they have white sides. Northern Fulmars with white bands proximal to the tail are paler above with obvious pale wing panels.

I provide another view of the same bird, below, an individual that I photographed off southern New Jersey on 21 October 2009.



Incorrect species provided as answers:
Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 1
Black-footed Albatross - 2
Parasitic Jaeger - 1
Black-tailed Gull - 1
Brant - 1
Canada Goose - 1

The 13 of 20 providing the correct answer:
Peter Wilkinson
George Cresswell
Aaron Brees
Bob Archer
Tyler Bell
Mark Dettling
Margie Joy
Peter Burke
Kevin Kerr
Joe Bens
Marcel Such
Joel Such
Chishun Kwong

Answer: Greater Shearwater

Monday, October 26, 2009

Quiz #322 (2009-4-04) Answer


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Answer by Tony Leukering

The broken eye ring on an otherwise pretty plain face, strong wing bars, side and flank streaking, and grayish tail do a good job at narrowing our quiz bird's ID to a small set of warbler species. The drabness of the underparts with the dark streaking set on off-white feathers and lacking any obvious bright yellow should take us to the duller individuals among Cape May, Yellow-rumped, and Kirtland's warblers. The second-most common species guessed, Pine Warbler, doesn't make the cut as the dull end individuals can be this dull, but those individuals also lack or nearly lack side and flank streaking.

Getting a peek at our bird's rump could help, as it would rule out Kirtland's if not gray and provide our answer if it was, as both the other two species still in consideration have yellow or yellowish rumps. But, that body part is hidden behind the folded wingtips -- what color we can see proximal from the tail base is the gray uppertail coverts. However, we can rule out Kirtland's, as our bird's undertail coverts are just too drab; Kirtland's always sport bright white there.

Separating the dull ends of the plumage spectrum of Cape May and Yellow-rumped warblers can be a bit tricky. But, our quiz bird's side/flank streaking is too prominent and Cape May also should have greenish uppertail coverts. Now that we've decided that our bird is a Yellow-rumped Warbler, it might be a good time to point out the diagnostic bit of buff-yellow on the side. Also, it would behoove us to at least attempt determining to which subspecies group of Yellow-rumped Warbler the bird belongs. The very dull head might suggest Audubon's, but the bird shows just a bit of a pale ear surround that would rule that subspecies group out. Of somewhat less utility, but still a feature to consider in this endeavor, is the distinctness and contrastiness of the eye ring, with that shown by the quiz bird being more typical of Myrtle Warbler than of Audubon's Warbler. I provide, below, another picture of this Myrtle Warbler, one in which the namesake feature is obvious, that I photographed off Delaware 11 October 2009.



One respondent's answer included a guess at the subspecies as part of the ganswer and due to the incorrectness of the subspecies guessed, the answer was precluded from being correct for the competition. I guess this is a good time to remind all that you are more than welcome to provide thoughts on subspecies, color morph, age, sex, whatever, but do not make those comments integral to your answer concerning the species presented. Another respondent getting the quiz correct provided an incorrect assessment of subspecies, too, but, as you can see below, that person separated the species answer from all other aspects:

"Yellow-rumped Warbler ("Audubon's" Warbler, fall plumage)."

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Hammond's Flycatcher - 1
Pine Warbler - 4
Cape May Warbler - 1

The 18 of 24 providing the correct answer:
Robert McNab
Kevin Kerr
Al Guarente
John Bissell
Peter Burke
Tyler Bell
Aaron Brees
Joey Kellner
Margaret Smith
Tara Nelson
Peter Wilkinson
Nick Komar
Margie Joy
Mark Dettling
Su Snyder
Andy Dettling
Marcel Such
Joel Such

Answer: Yellow-rumped Warbler ("Myrtle" Warbler)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Quiz #321 (2009-4-03) Answer



Answer by Tony Leukering

We have a seemingly obvious shorebird with a vaguely two-toned bill, whitish dots on the brownish back, obvious spectacles, and strongly black-and-white barred underwing feathers. We can see a bit of each of the bird's legs, one in sun, one in shadow. The shadowed leg looks greenish, the sun-dappled leg somewhat dull yellowish.

The longish bill rules out most (if not all) of the Calidris sandpipers and sends us to the recently-expanded genus, Tringa. With the subsuming of Actitis, Catoptrophorus, and Heteroscelus into Tringa, some well-known species (Spotted Sand, Willet, and Wandering Tattler) are now housed in the same genus as the two yellowlegs, Tringa. The strong underwing barring may suggest Wandering Tattler, but that pattern does not extend onto the underparts, so that species and the other tattler are removed from consideration. In fact, the darkness of the wings, both upper and under sides, should take us quickly to Solitary Sandpiper. At this point, the white eye rings connected to whitish supraloral stripes (making spectacles), the small white spots on the upperparts, and the leg color all serve to reinforce that snap ID. However, there are similar species occurring in the ABA area, and we should always consider them when ogling a Solly Sand. We should consider Wood Sandpiper, in particular, as it has occurred in both New York and Delaware, thus could occur virtually anywhere in the ABA area.

The darkness of the underside of the wings argues most strongly against an ID of Wood Sandpiper, but Green Sandpiper is still in play. However, that species shows a more uniformly black underwing at odds with our quiz bird. Thus, our snap ID has proven correct.

But, I implore observers to keep studying the bird, as naming a bird is not the end-all, be-all of birding. Solitary Sandpiper comes in two subspecies, nominate solitaria and western cinnamomea. Adults are essentially indistinguishable in the field, but juveniles are fairly readily determined given reasonable views. Also, given the suggestion by some (particularly Herbert, P.D.N, M.Y. Stoeckle, T.S. Zemlak, and C.M. Francis (2004)) that cinnamomea is a cryptic species, we should all become more familiar with the two subspecies and their distributions -- which have not been worked out all that well. (Note, though, that the methodology used by Herbert et al. (2004) has been called into question by many; we await a definitive yea or nay.)

While some field guides illustrate the two, this is really a job for Pyle, part II, the second part of the landmark Identification Guide to North American Birds that is primarily written for banders, but which is eminently useful for field birders. Within the book, Pyle notes the following criteria for separation:

solitaria: "upperparts and lores dusky blackish, the back with whitish spots in Juv; p10 [the outermost primary] with darker shaft and without whitish mottling to inner web."

cinnamomea: "upperparts and lores brownish, the back with buff spots in Juv; p10 with paler shaft and (often) whitish mottling to inner web."

To my eyes, our bird's upperparts and lores look brownish, which should point us toward cinnamomea. As I interpret the darker vs. paler p10 shaft as meaning relative to each other, we cannot use this character as we've got only one bird. However, realize that a pale shaft to p10 is a widespread character in Charadriiformes, the order including shorebirds, gulls, terns, skimmers, jaegers, and alcids.

The spotting on the bird's back looks white or whitish, and that leads us back to solitaria. Additionally, there is no apparent mottling on the inner web of p10, a feather that we can see very well on the bird's right wing; another solitaria feature, but note the qualifier ("(often)") in the cinnamomea account. So, that leaves us with 1 character state for cinnamomea and 1.5 for solitaria. Of course, the most easily seen-and-assessed-in-the-field character is the back spotting, so, perhaps we should give it more weight. I am leery, though, of the character for a couple of reasons: 1) many birders have relatively poor color-shade discernment capabilities and 2) buff tends to wear/bleach toward white, so a worn juvenile with white spots may be referable to solitaria or it may be a worn cinnamomea. I have had no opportunity to determine if this ever happens in "real life," but I can certainly imagine it happening. Finally, I would suspect that a "vagrant" of either might show up late in the season and that would make subspecific determination even trickier.

This juvenile Solitary Sandpiper occupied a sky pool in the circle at Cape May Pt. S.P., Cape May Co., NJ, for three days in early October 2009 where I photographed it on the 13th. By range, it ought to be a solitaria, but....

After three quizzes in the quarter's competition, only four are sitting pretty with perfect scores: Peter Burke; Kevin Kerr; and the Such brothers, Joel and Marcel.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
none

The 23 of 23 providing the correct answer:
John Bissell
Margaret Smith
Nick Komar
Kevin Kerr
Jeff Jones
Aaron Brees
Tyler Bell
George Cresswell
Al Guarente
Su Snyder
Tara Nelson
Mark Dettling
Chris Sheridan
Bryan Guarente
Joel Such
Peter Wilkinson
Peter Burke
Andy Dettling
Margie Joy
Robert McNab
Barbara Deneen
Marcel Such
Chishun Kwong

Answer: Solitary Sandpiper

Monday, October 5, 2009

Quiz #320 (2009-4-02) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tony Leukering

LEG COLOR!

Before I continue the solution to the quiz, I'd like to paste in most of Kevin Kerr's response, as it so clearly elucidates most of the problems that this week's quiz caused:

"Step-by-step identification process:
1. Determined the query bird was a raptor based on thick yellow legs with long talons
2. Eliminated all North American raptors with a slaty blue-gray back and dark primaries
3. Consulted Guide to non-passerine birds of the Palearctic
4. Confirmed that Sooty Falcon is not on the ABA checklist
5. Consulted Guide to non-passerine birds of South America
6. Pulled out hair and squinted at the computer screen
7. Looked at the feet again and finally something clicked...
8. Laughed out loud"

Yes, this was a most interesting and confounding quiz. There were twice the number of incorrect species guessed as of correct responses. As I suspected when I was editing my many photos of this week's quiz bird, this was a real stumper. A few, though, either knew it right off or didn't let themselves get stuck in the wrong family shoving this square peg into a round hole. That latter was difficult enough, becaue there aren't all that many bird species with such bright yellow legs. As the bird was obviously not a shorebird, most of those going wrong found themselves among the raptors, a group with a lot of yellow-legged species. Sadly, no ABA-area raptor of the general color scheme of our quiz bird has such unmarked flight feathers -- both rectrices and remiges. Mississippi Kite may come closest, but the species sports a wide white trailing edge to the wing and with the wingtips extending beyond the tail, both features not part of our quiz bird. Snail Kite has a yellow-legged phase, but at that time they don't have smooth gray upperparts. That species' wingtips also extend beyong the tail tip.

A slight majority of those that managed to avoid the raptor trap (5 of 9) got the quiz correct. Unfortunately, the minority guessed a thrush sporting dark legs and two species of pigeon with fairly-typical-for-the-group pink legs.

I have noted this a number of times in this venue: many birders don't pay enough attention to leg color. Yes, they use it in shorebirds, but seem to ignore it with many/most other groups. As it is a very useful feature in a LOT OF SPECIES, I am harping on it, again.

A couple of respondents noted leafing through a field guide looking for species with plain upperparts and bright yellow legs. Anyone doing that carefully enough would come to the conclusion that there is only one species in that solution set: Band-tailed Pigeon. I photographed this amazingly cooperative individual in the "high country" of Santa Barabara County, CA, on 27 July 2009. I thank Peter Gaede for the opportunity to join him up there, if for no other reason than the chance to finally get reasonable pix of this species; another one of this individual is presented below.


Incorrect species provided as answers:
Snail Kite - 2
American Robin - 2
Merlin - 3
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
White-crowned Pigeon - 1
Mississippi Kite - 2
Rock Pigeon - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Northern Goshawk - 1

The 5 of 20 providing the correct answer:
Kevin Kerr
Peter Burke
Nick Komar
Marcel Such
Joel Such

Answer: Band-tailed Pigeon

Monday, September 28, 2009

Quiz #319 (2009-4-01) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Marcel Such and Tony Leukering

Ah, another tern. I spent much of my birding life a bit scared of medium-sized terns and I still feel somewhat uncomfortable with the beasts -- particularly with non-adult Arctics and with Roseates in general. My experience with other birders in the field suggests that I'm not the only one with this problem. Medium-sized tern ID is not that easy and most of us don't really understand them all that well. This week's quiz provided another case in point, though most respondents got the quiz correct.

A few respondents provided fairly thorough analyses of the quiz that were also fairly similar. I will use Marcel Such's response to do most of my job of providing the answer. Take it away, Marcel!

"The “bridled” terns, genus Onychoprion, can be eliminated because their secondaries have a dark bar on the trailing edge that our quiz bird completely lacks. The Least Tern looks very similar, but it has pale feet in all plumages and ages. The Large-billed Tern’s name-sake bill, its bright yellow feet, and its striking pied wing pattern quickly eliminate it from the list of possibilities. The Gull-billed Tern can be eliminated because of its short, stubby bill and the species has a completely white tail, whereas on the quiz bird, R6 [rectrix 6, the outermost tail feather] is black. The Caspian Tern can be eliminated because of its massive, neon-red bill and the extensive black in the tips of the primaries. The “dark” terns, genus Chlidonias, can be eliminated because of their overall dark plumage. The big terns in genus Thalasseus, except for the Sandwich Tern, can be eliminated because of their long, colorful bills. Sandwich Tern looks very similar to our quiz bird, but like the Gull-billed Tern, it has an all-white tail. This leaves the Sterna terns as our last options.

"There are four species of Sterna terns to consider: Roseate, Common, Arctic, and Forster’s Tern. The first thing that I’ll look at is that R6 is black, which eliminates both Roseate and Forster’s terns. Separating Common and Arctic Terns can be very tricky, but it can be done by comparing several minor differences. Arctic Tern has a shorter, thinner bill than does Common; the dark tips on the primaries are much thinner on Arctic than on Common; and all of Arctic’s secondaries are white, whereas Common’s are darker, with a pale window in the inner primaries. From what I can see on the quiz bird, the bill seems too long; the dark primary tips are much too broad; and, even though we can only see the underside of the wing, the secondaries are too dark with a contrasting window in the inner primaries for the quiz bird to be an Arctic Tern."

Thanks, Marcel. I wish to emphasize the tail pattern in adult Sterna terns. Common and Arctic terns have dark outer webs to the outermost rectrices (the R6s), while Forster's Tern has dark tips to the inner webs of the inner rectrices and Roseate Terns sport entirely pale tails.

Finally, a couple respondents were, apparently, suckered by the quiz bird's pale bill tip, leading them to suggest Sandwich Tern as the bird's ID. As noted by a couple respondents, that pale tip was a red herring and the bird's tail pattern quickly eliminates Sandwich from consideration.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Forster's Tern - 1
Sandwich Tern - 2

The 18 of 21 providing the correct answer:
Tyler Bell
Marcel Such
Peter Burke
Kevin Kerr
George Cresswell
Aaron Brees
Thomas Hall
Mark Dettling
Gary Koehn
Margie Joy
Su Snyder
Al Guarente
Barbara Deneen
Joel Such
Bryan Guarente
Joe Bens
Robert McNab
Chishun Kwong

Answer: Common Tern

Monday, September 21, 2009

Quiz #318 (2009-3-13) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tony Leukering

We had a doozy for the final quiz of the quarter, and I took the picture at Cape May Point SP, Cape May Co., NJ, specifically for this quiz. As has happened a couple of times previously, the quiz turned out to be more difficult than I had intended; there was an intended hidden bird, but also an unintended one, with the latter being quite difficult, if even truly possible. But, we'll start with the easy beasts, ignoring the partial (and unidentifiable) birds on the extreme left and right edges of the frame, and work from left to right.

The leftmost whole bird is on the back of the structure facing left and has the classic strongly bicolored orange-and-black bill of breeding-condition Forster's Tern. The next bird to the right has somewhat redder legs and a bill that is both redder and with the black not sharply set off from the red. The legs are not particularly short, so this bird is an alternate-plumaged Common Tern in breeding condition. The next smaller tern to the right is another Forster's (again, orange legs and orange-based bicolored and thicker-based bill) with another Forster's well in the back behind the huge tern. That huge tern has a crown that is mostly white, black legs, and a stout bright orange bill. The size rules out Elegant Tern, which would not so greatly dwarf Forster's Tern and the bill color and head pattern rule out Caspian.

The next tern to the right looks quite different from all the others, but it has the distinctive and classic robbers's-mask appearance of basic-plumaged Forster's Tern, and that's what it is. the bird perched on the pole is also a Forster's, as is the smaller tern to the right of the basic-plumaged Forster's. The next bird to the right (in the back) is unidentifiable, so we'll continue on to the next huge tern. Like the Royal to the left, this bird has black legs and a large orange bill, but it sports a solidly black crown. The bill seems a bit smaller than that of the Royal behind it, but it's still too deep-based to be that of an Elegant Tern and the bird's size also rules out that species, leaving us with no options other than an alternate-plumaged Royal Tern. The next two identifiable birds, the one between us and the second Royal and the one lying down are both Forster's by bill color and size.

Now, we come to the tricky bits, as the next five birds have some important bits hidden. The left-most of these in the front rank seems to sport redder legs and bill, but it also shows the distinct demarcation of black and orange on the bill typical of Forster's Tern and quite different from our other medium-sized terns. Perhaps, the apparent redness is an artefact of the different angle at which the bird is perched. Regardless, if it isn't a Forster's, it would have to be a Common, so it really doesn't matter what we call this bird -- for the quiz, anyway.

The next two terns have black legs and one is perched facing us but with its head turned back preening under its left wing. It's obviously a large tern, but the view we have probably does not permit definitive ID, but I can tell you that there were three Royal Terns perched here when I took the picture and this one is the third one. Its black-legged neighbor, however, was the intended hidden bird and the majority of incorrect respondents missed this one. In addition to its black legs, it has a mostly black bill with a distinct yellow tip that is angled down and backward as the bird seems to be studying its toes. This feature, in combination with its size being intermediate between that of Royal and Forster's clinch the ID as Sandwich Tern.

Skipping ahead to the rightmost whole bird, the bright orange legs suggest that it is another Forster's Tern, but it may not be strictly identifiable. The last two birds are both banded, though the legs of these birds are somewhat Escher-like in that it's puzzling as it is not easy to determine which legs belong to each of the birds. I believe that the right two legs (the left of which is banded) belong to the front bird and the left two legs (the right of which is banded) belong to the back bird. I base this mostly on the fact that the left two legs look thinner and redder than do the others. The seeming thickness difference could, I admit, be an illusion. The bird in front has a very long tail and we can see the inside edge of the left fork of that tail. It seems to me to have the somewhat darker inner-edge tips typical of Forster's Tern and so different from the tails of Common and Arctic terns, which have dark outer edges to the tail. However, I'm not positive that I'm interpreting the tail correctly and one respondent suggested that the bird is a Roseate Tern. Regardless, I'm not convinced that the bird is definitively identifiable.

That leaves us with the single bird present whose entire body is within the frame, but of which bird we can see the least. If it weren't banded and didn't have such an odd bill coloration, we might be able to ignore it as unidentifiable, but it is banded and it does have a barely-red-based black bill. The bill, alone, suggests Roseate Tern, but that in combination with the band make the ID nearly definitive. (Virtually all of the Roseate Terns that show up in Cape May are banded, as all of the colonies of the species to the north of New Jersey are extensively studied and banded. Unfortunately, in the field, I decided after quite some time studying this bird, that it was not a Roseate Tern and that the bird in front of it was a Forster's Tern. Upon running the quiz, though, I had second thoughts and asked Michael O'Brien for his opinion of the black-billed bird. He responded:

"Wow, that's a tough one. The bill looks long and the appropriate color for Roseate, and the sliver of white below the cap looks thinner than that on the Common Tern in the left side of the photo. I can't tell whose legs are whose, but one of the banded legs looks nice and coral red, while the other looks more orange like a Forster's. Same bird? I wish I could see ANYTHING else to back it up, but I would say it's probably a Roseate."

Of course, if I cannot be sure of the ID of a bird in one of these pictures, it is not fair to expect respondents to get such individuals correct, so I did not count those responses lacking Roseate Tern as incorrect if all else was correct. However, I did give the three respondents proposing Roseate Tern as one of the species present an extra bonus point each.

Twelve respondents provided answers with no incorrect species, but without enough correct ones.

With this being the last quiz of the quarter, it is time to announce the quarterly winner. Mark Dettling, Al Guarente, and Peter Wilkinson all ended the competition with 11 correct and congratulations are due all of them. As Peter has already won a quarterly competition this year, he is ineligible for another. Thus, the single bonus-point total difference between Mark and Al (9-8) leaves the former the winner of the third quarter's competition. Honorable mention goes to the next three places, occupied by Robert McNab (10 correct), Aaron Brees (9), and Margie Joy (8). As far as the annual competition is concerned, Aaron Brees still holds a three-quiz lead coming into the final quarter.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Elegant Tern - 1
Large-billed Tern - 1
Caspian Tern - 3

The 6 of 24 providing the correct answer:
Tyler Bell
Nick Komar
Mark Dettling
Kevin Kerr
Peter Wilkinson
Bryan Guarente

Answer: Common Tern, Forster's Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern (and, perhaps, Roseate Tern)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Quiz #317 (2009-3-12) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Al Guarente and Tony Leukering

Every once in a while, I don't fully consider the photo that I put up as a quiz. Or, rather, I don't fully consider the total list of options for the species presented, and this was one of those times. I didn't really take into account the possibilities from south of the ABA area that are accidental within the ABA area. But, since Al Guarente dealt, briefly, with those, I'll start the solution with his answer. Go, Al.

"The larger bill and the forked tail lead me to the martins instead of the swallows [sensu stricto; sensu largo, martins are swallows]. I am considering only the females and young males here. I believe Cuban Martin is ruled out by the lack of brown on the throat and breast. The Brown-chested Martin looks similar to Bank Swallow, so we can rule that out. I believe the Southern Martin would be a lot dingier on the breast than the two birds pictured. That leaves me with Gray-breasted and Purple martins. Although I can't see the forehead on either bird very well, the bottom bird looks like it has a trace of white on the forehead, which leads to Purple Martin. The bottom bird also shows dark streaking on the breast (dark shafts) and the top bird has the dark, splotchy flanks which also lean toward Purple. So, I would have to guess this week's birds are Purple Martins."

Thanks, Al.

I don't know that Al sufficiently ruled out the other "purple martins" from south of the ABA area, but as I received no such answers, I'll let things go. One of the subspecies of Brown-chested Martin does exhibit less of the Bank Swallow-like underparts pattern, but our upper bird's throat is too dark and the lower bird has none of that chest pattern, ruling that species out. Also, the tail is just too strongly notched for that species.

The dark throat on the upper bird combined with the purplish aspect to the upperparts rules out all of our swallows (again, sensu stricto) and the deeply-notched tail and dark shaft streaks on the underparts feathers of the lower bird do the same job. I photographed this adult female Purple Martin and one of her recently-fledged progeny at Villas WMA, Cape May Co., NJ, on 8 August 2009.

With one quiz remaining in the quarter's competition, Al Guarente clings to a one-quiz lead (with 11 correct) over Mark Dettling, Robert McNab, and Peter Wilkinson. Good luck to all on this week's quiz.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Brown-chested Martin - 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 1
Tree Swallow - 2
"Violet Green Tree Swallow" - 1

The 17 of 21 providing the correct answer:
Marcel Such
Peter Wilkinson
Tyler Bell
Su Snyder
Thomas Hall
George Cresswell
Aaron Brees
Peter Burke
Ira Sanders
Tammy Sanders
Al Guarente
Nick Komar
Mark Dettling
Robert McNab
Andrew Dettling
Chishun Kwong
Todd Reeves

Answer: Purple Martin

Monday, September 7, 2009

Quiz #316 (2009-3-11) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Only the flying birds need be identified.

Answer by Tony Leukering

Only the flying birds need be identified.

That was the caveat provided for this week's quiz photo and many probably breathed a sigh of relief. That is because all of the flying birds are in the focal plane of the picture and in front and no one had to deal with the out-of-focus gulls in the background. A couple respondents noted that though they couldn't find a third species, they were concerned that there was a possibility that they had missed such.

When I posted this quiz photo, I posted it with that very thought in mind: give our players a lot of birds to pick through with absolutely nothing hidden. I checked all of the responses and started writing the solution with reference to the picture when I noted something else. There is a hidden species!

The lovely Ruddy Turnstones are obvious and virtually all the other birds are a bewildering variety of Sanderlings, with their wide, white wing stripes, but with birds in full alternate plumage, birds in full basic plumage, and others in between. Yes, there are individuals that might seem smaller, but all of those ('cept one) either sport the Sanderling wing stripe or have so little of the bird visible as to be unidentifiable.

However, just left of center and below center, to the left of the nearly-overlapping Ruddy Turnstones, there is a peep. It can be told by its stronger face pattern, particularly it's strong superciliary, and its thin wing stripe. I provide here a enlarged version of that part of the picture with the bottom-left arrow pointing up to the bird, the middle arrow pointing at the thin wing stripe, and the right arrow pointing at a typical Sanderling wing stripe.


Now, though, we have to ID the bird and that's not all that easy (and I apologize for the difficulty that I hadn't intended). We can quickly rule out Least Sandpiper, as the bird's wingtip is quite pointed, not the somewhat-rounded wingtip of Least. That species is also eliminated by the underparts pattern, as the bird doesn't show a distinct hood. Long-toed Stint is similar in these regards. The small size and, to some extent, the head and chest pattern, rules out the larger White-rumped and Baird's sandpipers, leaving us with Semipalmated and Western sandpipers and Little and Red-necked Stints. The two stints are ruled out simply on the bill length.

Separating Semipalmated from Western given this view is close to impossible, though some features point toward Semi and few do to Western. Given that the picture was taken in spring in New Jersey, Semi is the odds-on favorite given that Western is fairly rare in spring there. Unfortunately, I took the picture in Villas, Cape May Co., NJ, on 1 June 2009 and what spring Westerns show up there often show up in very late spring. I spoke with Cameron Cox (see his article on peeps in Birding) and he agreed with me about the ID as Semipalmated based on the "dirtiness," thin wing stripe, and strong facial pattern.

As late-season peeps tend to be females, the bird's long bill is not the deal-breaker for an ID of Semi that some might have thought -- it is within the range of variation of the species. However, Cameron also agreed that the bird is probably not definitively identified. Thus, my solution to the problem is to accept as correct identifications of that bird as either Semipalmated Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, or unidentified, which has the happy consequence of making the vast majority of responses correct! However, I will give the extra bonus point of another correctly identified species each to George Cresswell and Bryan Guarente, the only two respondents that provided answers with Western and Semipalmated sandpipers, respectively, and without any other incorrect species.

Both incorrect respondents provided both correct species, but their answers presented too many species.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Herring Gull - 1
Great Black-backed Gull - 1
Western Sandpiper - 2
Least Sandpiper - 1
Purple Sandpiper - 1
Dunlin - 1

The 14 of 16 providing the correct answer:
Al Guarente
Ira Sanders
Tammy Sanders
Nick Komar
Mark Dettling
Robert McNab
Kevin Kerr
Su Snyder
George Cresswell
Aaron Brees
Margie Joy
Peter Wilkinson
Tyler Bell
Bryan Guarente

Answer: Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, and Semipalmated/Western Sandpiper

Monday, August 31, 2009

Quiz #315 (2009-3-10) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tony Leukering

For a change, we can see our quiz bird's head and almost all other critical parts, so we ought to be able to get this one correct rather quickly. Ah, but the beastie is flying, and that will put some off. That the bird is an oriole -- with its pale-based and quite-pointed bill and color pattern of yellow-olive body and blackish wings and tail -- seemed obvious to respondents, but which particular oriole was a question of some uncertainty.

When one is looking at an oriole, there are a couple of macro-scale features that can quickly reduce the number of options from the list of 10 ABA-area oriole species (see rules for link). The first is whether the bird is a yellow oriole or an orange oriole. There are five truly orange species of oriole -- that is, they do not sport a yellow or yellowish plumage at any age -- on this list (Streak-backed, Bullock's, Spot-breasted, Altamira, and Baltimore) and two truly yellow orioles (Audubon's and Scott's). Then there are the 'tweeners, those species that either have at least one age/sex class flaunting a yellow or yellowish plumage but with other plumages lacking yellow (Orchard) and those that cannot decide whether they want to be yellow or orange (Hooded and Black-vented). We can quickly rule out the five truly orange orioles.

Another couple of excellent wedge characters are wing pattern and tail pattern. Our quiz bird seems to have a solid black tail, but looking at the far rectrix, which appears greenish, suggests that our impression of blackness may be due to shading rather than pigmentation. However, that tail does seem to lack the white tips of Scott's Oriole tails and its length is also different from the short tail typical of Scott's. The quiz beastie has black wings with thin, pale wingbars, which rule out Black-vented. The above should leave us with only three options, Orchard, Hooded, and Audubon's. As it's the most-limited, range-wise, in the ABA area, we'll start our final elimination process with Audubon's. That species does have a rounded or graduated tail as on our quiz bird, but it also sports a short, straight bill at odds with our quiz bird. In fact, that feature also eliminates Orchard, which also has a shorter, squarer tail than does our quiz bird. I took this picture of an immature Hooded Oriole at Goleta, Santa Barbara Co., CA, on 28 July 2009.

Emerging from the carnage of this week's quiz, Al Guarente, with nine correct, is in sole possession of first place in the quarter's competition, with Mark Dettling, Robert McNab, and Peter Wilkinson right behind with eight correct. One correct answer was submitted 48 minutes past the deadline. Sorry.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Orchard Oriole - 9
Scott's Oriole - 3

The 6 of 18 providing the correct answer:
Mark Dettling
Al Guarente
Andy Dettling
Peter Wilkinson
Margie Joy
Robert McNab

Answer: Hooded Oriole

Monday, August 24, 2009

Quiz #314 (2009-3-09) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Margie Joy and Tony Leukering

This week's blackish bird in the grass caused a bit of consternation among the regulars, though a large majority scored a 'C' (for 'correct') in the results spreadsheet. Margie Joy, a relative newcomer to the quiz, provided a pretty decent answer, so we'll start there.

"I looked at several kinds of glossy black birds --

Corvids -- crows and ravens are likely too big, given the way the bird is tucked into the grass, and their tails are proportionally too long [I would suggest that the size comparison with the grass also rules this group out--Mr Bill];

Blackbirds, including grackles -- some of these could be the right size but again their tails are too long;

Phainopepla also has a long tail; and

Purple Martins (pushing it with this one) are small enough (but too slender) and have shortish tails, but their wingtips extend to their tail tips, and they are blue-black, which the quiz bird is not, except maybe on some of the highlights.

So, that leaves European Starling, which is about the right size, glossy black, and has a short, squared-off tail. And spots. It took a lot of looking to decide that the light "marks" in the photo might, indeed, be lighter-colored tips and edges of feathers, very worn and pretty subtle, but I'm pretty well convinced."

As Margie noted, some of our bird's scapulars have thin, buffy fringes to the tips and some have quite distinct long, pale, pointed tips that are distinctive of European Starling. Finally, the tertials have iridescent leading edges, but the bulk of each of those feathers is a flat grayish-brownish-black, another feature that makes a strong case for European Starling and helps to rule out the other black options. Thanks, Margie, and kudos to you for also, roughly, determining the seasonality of the photograph; the worn state of the plumage and the molt suggest a late-summer or early-fall photography date.

I photographed this worn adult European Starling that has initiated its pre-basic molt (the only molt that the species conducts in a given year) at the terminal for the Cape May - Lewes ferry, Cape May Co., NJ, on 18 August 2009. Another picture in that series is presented below for confirmation.



Al Guarente emerged from this quiz in sole possession of first place for this quarter's competition, though with four others breathing down his neck.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Northwestern Crow - 1
Brewer's Blackbird - 1
American Crow - 2
Shiny Cowbird - 1
Common Grackle - 1

The 12 of 18 providing the correct answer:
David Clark
John Bissell
Marcel Such
Joel Such
Kevin Kerr
Mark Dettling
Al Guarente
Margie Joy
Robert McNab
Peter Wilkinson
Aaron Brees
Nick Komar

Answer: European Starling

Monday, August 17, 2009

Quiz #313 (2009-3-08) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tony Leukering

Mark Peterson took this week's quiz photo at Fountain Creek Regional Park, El Paso Co., CO, 27 August 2008 and it was obvious to this week's respondents that it was of a cormorant and a youngster at that. Because the face pattern is not crisp and the bird's plumage is not blackish, our bird is almost certainly a juvenile. The presence of a large and bright orange gular area should bring us to a dichotomy that is often much more difficult than most field guides suggest: Double-crested vs. Neotropic. Even though some Great Cormorants can have an orange gular area, the bird's lack of white on the belly rules out that species.

Typical juveniles of both species are fairly readily identified correctly, but there is an unfortunate number of 'tweeners that demand very careful scrutiny. This fact is not illustrated any better than with the following story.

When I started contemplating writing the answer for this week's quiz, I looked at the picture again and was suddenly not so certain that I had correctly IDed the beast. So, I sent a request to four of North America's best birders (1 west coastal, 2 east coastal, and 1 interior) asking them to let me know what they thought the correct ID was. I don't know why I didn't send that request to an odd number of experts, because I should have expected what I got: a tie score, 2 for Double-crested, 2 for Neotropic. However, after further discussion, they were unanimous in their ID, so I shall continue.

Most juvenile Double-cresteds are more extensively white below than the quiz bird while most Neotropics are less white. Unfortunately, it's difficult to be certain of the extent of white, as the photo is overexposed and the white that is present may be an illusion caused by that overexposure. So, we'll have to check other features. Additionally, Double-crested is more variable in plumage as juveniles than is appreciated by most birders, as is illustrated by two darker-breasted cormorants illustrated on my flickr site, one from

California

and one from

New Jersey.

We can be certain that both of those cormorants are juveniles, as their remiges (wing flight feathers) are all of the same generation and there is only one time when that is true of cormorants, when they're in juvenal plumage. This is because cormorants exhibit staffelmauser, a molt strategy that limits the number of large, energy-expensive feathers that they replace in any one molt (see the paper on molt, figure 6, by Peter Pyle), causing adults to always have at least two ages of remiges.

So, let's continue.

Tail length is a good indicator of species in this duo, but the angle of the picture makes it a bit tricky to be certain of our bird's tail length. It does not look particularly long to me, but I am not willing to base my ID entirely on that feature in this bird. That leaves us only head pattern on which to base an ID. Even juvenile Double-cresteds typically sport a supraloral strip of bare orange facial skin that our quiz bird lacks. Additionally, there is a distinct white band behind the orange gular skin. These two features point directly at Neotropic Cormorant and, generally, away from Double-crested. Unfortunately, the latter of these two characters is often present on juvenile and immature Double-cresteds, but the lack of supraloral orange is considered by many to be diagnostic: Double-cresteds always have it and Neotropics always lack it.

Of course, this is biology we're talking about, and biology is rarely that neat. Colorado birders have a slight advantage in this in that I wrote a piece for Colorado Birds on this duo, highlighting a picture taken by Michael O'Brien of a Neotropic Cormorant that exhibited an orange supraloral band (Leukering, T. 2008. Neotropic Cormorant (In the scope column). Colorado Birds 42:226-228.). And, if Neotropic can sport such, surely some Double-cresteds can lack that feature. If this is true, what about gular area shape characters?

Though I've been wrong often enough before now, I believe that our most certain road to correct ID of this quiz bird and the two species, in general, is through careful analysis of the shape and size of the bare skin in the gular area and the shape and orientation of the meeting of that area with the feathering posterior to it. In Neotropic, the area of bare skin is small and the meeting with the feathering behind it angles forward from the gape at about 135 degrees. In Double-crested, the orange gular area is large and the meeting with feathering is nearly vertical (or 180 degrees).

So, despite our bird lacking a supraloral patch of orange and its fairly dark neck, this week's quiz bird is a Double-crested Cormorant. The photographer believes that it is the indivdual that was reported from the site as a Neotropic Cormorant, a review species in Colorado, and one can certainly see from Mark's picture how that mistake could be made.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Neotropic Cormorant - 7
Great Cormorant - 3

The 8 of 18 providing the correct answer:
Nick Komar
Tyler Bell
George Cresswell
Victor Germain
Al Guarente
Margie Joy
Mark Gilsdorf
Barbara Deneen

Answer: Double-crested Cormorant

Monday, August 10, 2009

Quiz #312 (2009-3-07) Answer


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Answer by Tony Leukering

All respondents got this week's quiz bird to the right genus and then they were perfect from there -- in that none of the world's five species of loons were lacking from the answers. The correct response was received from a plurality of respondents, but not a majority.

Starting with the bird being a loon, the important features to note are bill shape and size, head pattern, neck pattern, and pattern -- if any -- on the upperparts feathers. In fact, we'll start with the last item, as that will enable us to age the bird, a feature that could be quite helpful. There are fairly distinct pale edgings on those feathers, indicating that our bird is either an adult Red-throated Loon (which option is negated by our bird's head pattern) or is in its first plumage cycle and retains much (if not all) of its juvenal plumage; other adult loons are plainer-backed in basic plumage (and the bird is certainly not in alternate plumage!).

Moving up to the bill, a few respondents noted, either directly or through their estimation of the species, that the bill was quite large. However, note that for its length, the bill is quite thin (top to bottom) virtually throughout its length and comes to a fairly fine point and with no particular gonydeal angle. Yes, the bill is pale, but it's certainly not the typical bright yellow or creamy-yellow of Yellow-billed Loon and the aforementioned lack of a distinct gonydeal angle pretty well puts that species in the trash bin of possibilities.

The bird's face is mostly dark, with just a bit of white below the eye and before the auriculars. Also, note that the neck is heavily marked and, from this angle, lacks any white. These features do a pretty good job for us in eliminating the second-most-frequently-guessed species, Common Loon. In all non-alternate plumages, that species has a fairly sharp demarcation between the dark of the hindneck and the white of the foreneck, with the dark intruding into the white around mid-neck and the white intruding into the dark just above that.

The above eliminations leave us with the three smaller-billed loon species. Arctic Loon is actually much more like Common Loon in bill size and our bird doesn't seem to be holding its bill upraised, as is typical for the species, so let's tentatively rule that species out. With the head angle mentioned, we should also be able to rule out Red-throated, because that species also typically holds its head above horizontal. All that should leave Pacific Loon as the answer, right?

But, Pacific Loon (and Arctic Loon) should show strong demarcation between the dark of the hindneck and the white of the foreneck, which, as we noted above, our quiz bird lacks; there is no white on our bird's neck. Well, remember that we aged the bird as a juvenile. Could juvenile Pacific Loons have dark throats? Absolutely! Though not pictured all that well in many field guides, juvenile Pacific Loons can be quite similar in neck pattern to that of juvenile Red-throated Loons, as is illustrated by one of my pictures
flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/1994650566/.
So, our ID is confirmed.

Well, wait a minute, let's go back to the upperparts feathers. All loon species in juvenal plumage, have upperparts feathers entirely fringed with pale; all, that is, except for Red-throated, which has those edges restricted to short bars of pale on the sides of the feathers. In the four bigger loons, the feather pattern results in scalloping, in Red-throated, of elongated spotting. Our bird's upperparts are quite typical of those of Red-throated Loon and wrong for those of the other four loon species. This, then, agrees with our bird's very thin and quite pointed bill.

I took this picture of a juvenal Red-throated Loon at Sunset Beach, Cape May Co., NJ, on 8 February 2008. Recall that single pictures can often mislead us as to shape and posture -- as those features are rather fluid -- and the fact that the quiz bird's head is not elevated above the horizontal, while suggestive, is not at all definitive in assisting our identification attempt. I would suggest that the quiz bird is a male, in that its bill is on the long end and its head is on the square end for Red-throated Loon.

A number of those at the top of this quarter's leader board stumbled this week, leaving five in a tie at the top with 6 of 7 correct. For the annual competition, Aaron Brees has a whopping four-quiz lead over Andy Dettling and Robert McNab, with 25 of 33 correct.

One incorrect answer was received 2.5 hours after the deadline.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Common Loon - 5
Yellow-billed Loon - 3
Pacific Loon - 2
Arctic Loon - 1

The 7 of 18 providing the correct answer:
Tyler Bell
Kevin Kerr
Mark Gilsdorf
Tara Nelson
Margie Joy
Al Guarente
Robert McNab

Answer: Red-throated Loon

Monday, August 3, 2009

Quiz #311 (2009-3-06) Answer


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Photo taken in mid-November. For an extra bonus point: Of the gulls, which is the odd one out, plumage-wise? There may well be more correct solution sets than the one for which I am looking, but any well-justified, and correct, response will receive an extra bonus point, regardless of whether that person's answer is correct for the competition.

Answer by Tony Leukering

OUCH!

I will start with the center bird that none missed, though one respondent did not provide the first word in the name of American Coot. Eurasian Coot is ruled out by that species' lack of a bill ring. Now, onto the gulls.

Where should we start? As I consider it the most distinctive one, I'm going to start with the front right bird. It's obviously an immature of one of the larger gull species (note the size comparison with the coot). It has some adult-type back feathers but not much else of the plumage is adult-like. That should indicate to us that it's either a 1st-cycle individual of one of the three-year gulls or a 2nd-cycle individual of one of the four-year gulls; see quizzes 150 and 257 for more on this subject. Using the primary-shape criterion noted in quiz #150, this bird should be a 2nd-cycle bird. Nicely corroborating that decision is a feature that I find remarkly little-used in the species' ID: its blue legs. Only California Gull sports such and only in its second cycle. The bill, too, is blue and these blue bits are, in my experience, absolutely diagnostic.

So, with one bird identified, we can now use it as a yardstick for the others. I continue on the right side to the rear bird, which looks smaller and paler than our Cal Gull. We can just see that it has some gray back feathers and with its smaller size, it must be a three-year gull and thus a Ring-billed. Mew Gulls have back feathers of about the same tone as does Cal Gull and at our bird's age are overall darker than our quiz bird.

The big gull in the left rear is next on our agenda and we should note that it, like the previous two gulls, has some adult-like (unmarked gray) feathers on the back. There is a three-year gull as big as this one, Yellow-footed, but in 1st-cycle plumage it is considerably darker than our quiz bird, so it must be an individual of one of the four-year gull species. As this bird has, except for the aforementioned back feathers, the same color tone throughout its plumage, including its primaries, we really have no option other than Glaucous-winged Gull. Yes, we might entertain thoughts of a Western x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid, but such birds really ought to show outer primaries at least somewhat darker than the rest of the plumage, among other distinguishing characters.

Last one, and, in some ways, both the most difficult and the easiest. It seems to be your sterotypical young four-year gull, if there is such a thing. It's brown, with darker primaries, and is obviously smaller than the bird behind it and of similar size to the Cal Gull. If that last is true, it's probably not an individual of the sterotypical gull, Herring Gull, but there are abnormally small individuals in most gulls species; let's look more closely.

Ogling the primaries, we can easily determine that they belong to a 1st-cycle bird, as they are fairly pointed. At this point, the provision of the season in which the picture was taken starts to have some meaning. In mid-November, most 1st-cycle gulls have initiated their pre-formative molt, replacing a variety of feathers among a few tracts, particularly the head, back, scapulars, and coverts. Looking closely at the bird's plumage, there seems to be no suggestion of this molt: the scapulars and wing coverts, particularly, seem to be of one generation without any differently patterned feathers. Only some high-arctic-breeding gulls delay their pre-formative molt so long, so our bird can really only be referable to one of three species: Herring, Thayer's, and Iceland. Note that only the high-arctic breeders among Herring Gulls delay their pre-formative, it they do so at all; most Herring Gulls are well into that molt by mid-November and sport whitish heads and multiple patterns among the scapulars and wing coverts.

Obviously, ruling out Iceland Gull is fairly straightforward as even the darkest of juvenile Icelands would not have such dark primaries. Ruling out Herring is a bit trickier, but we can do it with our bird's combination of delayed molt, all-black bill, thin bill, not-quite-black primaries, and obvious whitish primary fringes. So, this is a Thayer's Gull in juvenal plumage (also called first basic plumage). That feature was my aim in the offering of the extra bonus point -- the Thayer's Gull in the picture is the only gull fully in juvenal plumage, thus has not molted since leaving the nest. The four respondents that earned the extra point took that tack. But, as I noted in the red-letter caveat, there are probably other correct answers and I had thought of another before sitting down to write this quiz solution. The California and Glaucous-winged gulls are both 2nd-cycle birds in 2nd-basic plumage, but the Ring-billed Gull has completed (or nearly so) its pre-formative molt, so is in formative plumage, the only one so feathered.

Five respondents provided answers with no incorrect species, but not enough correct ones. Also, one respondent scored the extra bonus point despite not providing a correct answer.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Glaucous Gull - 1
Western Gull - 2
Herring Gull - 3
Mew Gull - 2

The 7 of 19 providing the correct answer (* indicates those receiving the
offered extra bonus point):
Aaron Brees *
Robert McNab
Mark Dettling *
Kevin Kerr *
Nick Komar
Andy Dettling
Peter Wilkinson *

Answer: American Coot and Ring-billed, California, Thayer's, and Glaucous-winged gulls

Monday, July 27, 2009

Quiz #310 (2009-3-05) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tony Leukering

This week's quiz is yet another swimming bird and yet another bird heading away from us. The overall color pattern -- dark head, white collar, gray body -- rules out most options and drops us among the diving ducks near the back of the waterfowl. Note that the white collar does a huge job for us ruling out almost all swimming birds.

The gray sides rule out male goldeneyes and the gray rump rules out females of those species, as does the suggestion of black and white coming down onto the sides. These exclusions leave us with a couple merganser species, with the bird's crest just visible hanging down across the collar. The gray sides rule out Hooded Merganser.

Larry Semo took this picture of a cracking male Red-breasted Merganser.

Note that a similar picture was used in quiz #277.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Hooded Merganser - 1

The 18 of 19 providing the correct answer:
Andy Dettling
Thomas Hall
Robert McNab
Peter Wilkinson
Su Snyder
Tara Nelson
George Cresswell
Al Guarente
Kevin Kerr
Chuck Carlson
Peter Burke
Mark Dettling
Margie Joy
Barbara Deneen
Tyler Bell
Joe Bens
Chishun Kwong
Aaron Brees

Answer: Red-breasted Merganser

Monday, July 20, 2009

Quiz #309 (2009-3-04) Answer


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Answer by Tony Leukering

Though I received responses involving nearly as many incorrect species as correct answers, the plurality of respondents got this week's quiz correct. Nearly all answers involved some species of Tringa sandpiper, which is the correct genus, but 11 of those 21 didn't select the right Tringa.

Starting at that genus, the fact that the bird is in alternate plumage tells us that the picture was taken in spring or early summer, as all Tringas are fairly early breeders (for shorebirds), seeing as how none of them are truly arctic in nature. The thickness of the bill base rules out the stiletto-armed Solitary, Wood, Green, and Marsh sandpipers, and Lesser Yellowlegs, with the strong and wide blackish bars on the scapulars and tertials assisting in eliminating some of those species. The white side to the rump and the vaguely gray tail without any pattern is fine for Greater Yellowlegs and Willet, but the tail pattern (or lack thereof) is wrong for Spotted and Common sandpipers. Additionally, those species are also ruled out by our bird's strong dark chevrons on the sides and flanks. Obviously, the complete lack of solid black plumage rules out Spotted Redshank. Common Redshank has legs too bright orange (what we can see of our bird's legs look dull yellow) and they have bright orange bill bases. Finally, Greater Yellowlegs has tertials that are blackish with white spots or bars, not our bird's brownish tertials with strong black bars.

I took this picture of an adult Willet at Nummy Island, Cape May Co., NJ, on 30 May 2009. The data on date and location should let us know that our quiz bird is of the eastern form, but we can also tell that from the extensive dark patterning of the upperparts, particularly its well-marked head and neck.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Lesser Yellowlegs - 2
Limpkin - 1
Solitary Sandpiper - 2
Greater Yellowlegs - 7
Blue-winged Teal - 1
Red-throated Loon - 1
Short-billed Dowitcher - 1
White-rumped Sandpiper - 1

The 10 of 26 providing the correct answer:
Tyler Bell
George Cresswell
Andy Dettling
Peter Wilkinson
Al Guarente
Mark Dettling
Aaron Brees
Su Snyder
Robert McNab
Chishun Kwong

Answer: Willet

Monday, July 13, 2009

Quiz #308 (2009-3-03) Answer


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Answer by Tony Leukering

Yet another quiz picture of the south end of a north-bound bird. As Chuck Carlson noted, "This is not a view normally illustrated in the field guides...." Perhaps, it should be, as I certainly see enough of disappearing hindquarters in the field to be able to make good use of such illustrations!

As all respondents noted, this week's quiz bird is a sparrow; the overall brown color, extensive streaking, and pink legs certainly make that a good starting group. Though most respondents got the correct answer, even some that did noted that the quiz was tough.

Though streaking may be considered a typical feature of sparrows, many are, at least as adults, unstreaked below -- virtually all of 'em have streaking on the back. Of course, note that I qualified the above with "as adults." Could this be a juvenile bird in typically streaked juvenal sparrow plumage? Well, a quick look at a bit of the bird that we can see well, the undertail coverts, tells us that the beastie is not in juvenal plumage, as those feathers do not appear weak and fluffy. So, on to adult sparrows.

There are, actually, very few sparrows that show such obvious streaking on the flanks and undertail coverts: Lincoln's Sparrow and some forms of Savannah, Fox, and Song sparrows. The strong rufescent tones in much of the plumage and the gray bits on the head rule out Savannah. Those Fox Sparrows that have streaking on the undertail coverts lack, or mostly lack, it on the back, and those with back streaking have different color streaking there and lack undertail-covert streaking.

That leaves us with a sometimes-difficult duo, Song and Lincoln's sparrows. Were the bird in hand, we could almost certainly ID it as a Song, as Lincoln's almost always erect the crown feathers into a crest when in the hand. However, the bird is not in the hand and we must look elsewhere for our ID. And, for that, we'll go back to the undertail coverts, a tract of feathers that is very useful for ID, but greatly overlooked. We can see that the ground color of most of these feathers is buffy and that certainly suggests Lincoln's Sparrow, though at least some Song Sparrows, particularly in the western race morphna, sport such. But, the color of the streaking on the undertail coverts (and on the flanks) is black, not the reddish color of morphna or most other races of Song Sparrow. I provide, below, another picture of the same Lincoln's Sparrow photographed by Rachel Hopper 16 May 2008 in Fremont Co., CO, during the annual Colorado Field Ornithologists' convention.



I received one correct answer that arrived after the deadline.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Seaside Sparrow - 1
Song Sparrow - 2

The 20 of 23 providing the correct answer:
Marcel Such
Tucker Lutter
George Cresswell
Al Guarente
Brandon Percival
Robert McNab
Ira Sanders
Tammy Sanders
Andy Dettling
Chuck Carlson
Mark Dettling
Aaron Brees
John Bissell
Bill Rozar
Su Snyder
Peter Wilkinson
Joel Such
Barbara Deneen
Chishun Kwong
Margie Joy

Answer: Lincoln's Sparrow