Monday, August 30, 2010

Quiz #363 (2010-3-08) Solution


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Answer by Tony Leukering

An obvious cormorant with an orange gular patch with a white border must be a Neotropic! Well, while that feature is one that is consistent with an ID of Neotropic Cormorant, it is also consistent with an ID of Double-crested Cormorant, at least of some youngsters (particularly juvs). So, that is the decision to be made this week, as the other visible features, particularly the pale underparts with neck being as pale as belly, rule out all other ABA-area possibilities. Unfortunately for the difficulty factor, the quiz bird's underparts are just too pale to be those of a Neotropic. Additionally, the rear border of the gular patch is around vertical, unlike the border of Neotropic, which is canted forward (from top to bottom) some 45 degrees.

I photographed this juvenile Double-crested Cormorant at Orange Beach, Baldwin Co., AL, on 9 August 2010.

One answer was considered incorrect for the competition, as it capitalized the first 'c' in the name (see rules) and a second did the same and also neglected to include the hyphen. Another answer included an incorrect assessment of age with the (correct) species answer. Please note the rules and keep any assessment of age/sex/plumage separate from your species answer, e.g., in parentheses, on a separate line. This is because if one responds with something like "male Northern Cardinal" and the quiz bird is a female Northern Cardinal, one's answer cannot be correct. It is considered correct enough for the respondent's name to be listed in the queue of respondents getting the correct species, but is not considered correct for the competition.

Finally, it is heartening to see the response rate to the quiz climb a bit this week, with a number of new players.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Neotropic Cormorant - 8

Congratulations to the 16 of 24 getting the quiz correct:
Tyler Bell
Chuck Carlson
Donna Nespoli
Kirk Huffstater
Nick Komar
Mike Freiburg
George Cresswell
Robert McNab
Gary Koehn
Margie Joy
Su Snyder
Maureen Blackford
Al Guarente
Peter Wilkinson
Bryan Guarente
Thomas Hall

Answer: Double-crested Cormorant