Quiz #384 (2011-1-05) Solution

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Answer by Bryan Guarente and Tony Leukering

Brian Guarente provided a good response, so we'll start this week's solution with his words.

"Okay, you had me for a second.... I thought it was a Black Tern, but, thankfully, so much looked wrong on initial glance that I didn't submit right away. I needed to spend more time looking and it became obvious that this is not a tern at all. The feet are the best clue to make sure that this isn't a member of the Laridae: No webbing.

"So, where do we go with this? The feet look like that of a perching bird, not that of a wader or swimmer, so to the back half of the book we go. A mostly BLACK bird with a white underside gives us five options: Eastern Kingbird, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Black Phoebe, Tree Swallow, and Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco. Eastern Kingbird and Fork-tailed Flycatcher show white in the face, not just on the underside and underwings. Tree Swallow's tail is much shorter than this and the wings are more pointed. Slate-colored Junco is not this black and the bill is all pink, but the rest of the pattern matches very nicely, which I found an interesting similarity. This leaves only Black Phoebe."

Though some might be quite surprised by the two submissions of Brown Jay, one of the correct respondents noted that his first thought upon looking at the picture was Brown Jay. As one of the incorrect respondents noted, juvenile Brown Jays have yellow bills and their plumage pattern is fairly similar to that of our quiz bird. But, that same respondent noted, our bird's bill is actually yellow only on the inside; it is otherwise black. Eastern Phoebe can be ruled out by the darkness of the dark plumage and the extent of white on the outer web of the outermost rectrix (Black shows a nearly entire white outer web, while Eastern generally has only the basal half of that web white. Another consideration is Black x Eastern Phoebe hybrid, a combo that is turning up more and more with Black Phoebe's rapid range expansion in Colorado and New Mexico. Nathan Pieplow, Elaine Coley, and I published a paper in Western Birds on the first confirmed occurrence of this hybrid in Loveland, CO, a couple years back, and more instances have been found in both Colorado and New Mexico since. That combo can be ruled out by the same characters that eliminate Eastern Phoebe from consideration, though with more care being required. A picture of the Loveland bird can be found on my photo site.

Bill Maynard took this spectacular photo of a Black Phoebe along the Arkansas River in Pueblo, Pueblo Co., CO, on 7 January 2011.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Brown Jay - 2
Eastern Phoebe - 1

Congratulations to the 26 of 29 getting the quiz correct:
Pam Myers
Robert McNab
Chuck Carlson
Clare Mix
Ben Coulter
Christopher Hinkle
Brandon Percival
Devich Farbotnik
Bryan Guarente
Al Guarente
Nick Komar
Jim Beatty
Ira Sanders
Tammy Sanders
Buzz Schaumberg
Margie Joy
Adrian Hinkle
Thomas Hall
Margaret Smith
Kirk Huffstater
Matt Bristol
Tucker Lutter
Peter Wilkinson
Chishun Kwong
Joel Such
Marcel Such

Answer: Black Phoebe

Quiz #383 (2011-1-04) Solution

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Answer by Tony Leukering

This week's quiz photo included a large, well-lit image of an obvious cormorant. What is wrong with me? Actually, despite the high-quality of the cormorant's image, this photo has two ways to trip up respondents, with both of those coming into play this week.

The first tricky bit is determining which species of cormorant of the two possibilities, Neotropic and Double-crested, is represented by our focal bird. You see, it's got something of a mix of characters, sporting both a bright orange supraloral stripe (a typical Double-crested feature) and a white edge to the posterior of the gular area (a typical Neotropic character). I noted in an article in Colorado Birds that some Neotropic Cormorants have some orange in the supraloral area, so the presence of orange there is not a sure indicator of an ID as Double-crested, though it is a very helpful ID feature. Our bird's orange supraloral seems too extensive and too obvious to be that of the odd Neotrop.

As noted in a previous Mr. Bill quiz (#363), young Double-cresteds can show a white rear border to the gular area, but that the shape differs between the two species. Neotropic Cormorant has the rear border of the gular area angled forward both above and below the gape, creating an angle of less than 90 degrees. Double-crested, however, has the border below the gape nearly vertical, creating an angle greater than 90 degrees. This week's cormorant has that larger angle.

Some might be thinking evil 'hybrid' thoughts, but the various size and shape characters apparent on this cormorant all point to an ID of Double-crested: the large (both long and thick) bill, the large head, and the short tail.

Now, for the second tricky bit. Note that when writing (above) about the focal bird of this quiz, that I never called it "the quiz bird." That is because there are two birds -- well, a bird and a half -- in the picture, and both are certainly identifiable. The second bird is that swimming duck, with white tail, black butt, orange legs, gray tertials, white belly, and curled black uppertail coverts -- an obvious male Mallard.

Finally, the age of the cormorant: though some respondents called this bird a juvenile, it is older than that, as evidenced by the mix of blackish and brown feathers on the underparts and the complete lack of any real whitish color there. I suspect that this is a second-cycle bird (about 1.5 years old), but I know that I took the picture at Prospect Lake, Wheatridge Greenbelt, Jefferson Co., CO, on 6 November 2006, a time of year when juvenile Double-crested Cormorants would still sport lots of whitish plumage on the underparts.

Eight respondents provided only one species in their answers, six of those getting the correct species of cormorant, though one of those omitted capitalization of the 'cormorant.' Additionally, one correct respondent neglected to capitalize 'Mallard,' so that answer was precluded from being correct for the competition. Finally, multiple respondents included a guess as to the age of one of the birds directly with the species name; since those age estimations were incorrect, the answers were considered incorrect (though these respondents also provided only one species in their answers) -- PLEASE READ THE RULES.

Seven players are tied with perfect scores (4 of 4) at this point, about a third the way through the quarter's competition.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Neotropic Cormorant - 3

Congratulations to the 18 of 28 getting the quiz correct:
Tyler Bell
Gary Koehn
Pam Myers
Bryan Guarente
Christopher Hinkle
Nick Komar
Christian Nunes
George Cresswell
Ali Iyoob
Margie Joy
Adrian Hinkle
Matt Bristol
Marcel Such
Joel Such
Peter Wilkinson
Tucker Lutter
Chishun Kwong
Nick Moore

Answer: Mallard, Double-crested Cormorant