Quiz #465 (2012-3-10) Solution

Click on picture(s) for a larger view.
The picture was taken in June in both species' breeding habitat.

Solution by Tony Leukering

The true take-home message for me concerning this quiz photo was that respondents did not make full use of the hint/caveat. If you are coming to this quiz blind, you might want to ponder that red-text note carefully.

Our quiz's focus bird is yelling about something, perhaps the bird on the tree on which it's about to land. What? A shorebird landing in a tree? Certainly, some species do it quite a bit, such as the species in question, though generally only during the breeding season and when on territory. Many of us have seen those pictures of Hudsonian Godwits standing on the tops of Black Spruces in their breeding haunts (and if you're like me, have been really keen to see such for yourself!), so we might consider that species; the tree IS a conifer! Our bird also certainly has black wing linings. However, Hudwits lack our bird's dusky-tipped white tail and the second white band on the underside of the wing. That leaves us with only Willet as an option, and all of the other features visible are consistent with that ID.

Now, we just have to solve the second bird. The combo of cinnamon coloration below and blackish wings does not leave us many options, particularly with that longish dark bill and that we know that the picture was taken in June (see caveat, above). That means that this must be a female of one of what I call the "big boy" grackles, Boat-tailed and Great-tailed. Yes, even female Rusty Blackbirds are never this uniformly cinnamon, and they certainly are not so in June. On breeding habitat.  They are black.  Or blackish.

Knowing the other species is a Willet might give us cause to think that the solution is easy, but Willet breeds next to both species of large grackle over its odd range. But, that range is the important factor here, as the Atlantic and Gulf Coast breeders (the ones that share range with Boat-tailed Grackle) are referable to what is termed "Eastern Willet," while those in the western part of North America (and which breed in places that also support Great-tailed Grackle), are "Western Willets." They are currently considered subspecies of one species, but they have obviously traversed quite some distance down the road to species differentiation, as they are readily separable on voice, plumage, and size cues. So, all we have to do to ID the grackle is determine to which subspecies the Willet belongs.

Western Willet is larger than is Eastern Willet, but that character is not so useful here. However, it is also paler and grayer and less-heavily marked below in alternate plumage than is Eastern. Our Willet's heavily barred brown chest and sides point straight at Eastern Willet.

I took this picture of a complaining (Eastern) Willet and a female Boat-tailed Grackle near Rio Grande, Cape May Co., NJ, on 5 June 2012. One respondent's otherwise incorrect answer had Willet mis-spelled and another's included "Eastern" in the species' name, which is incorrect.

With three quizzes to go in the quarterly competition, four are tied at the top of the leader board with nine correct: Ben Coulter, Richard Jeffers, Robert McNab, and Sean Walters.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Rusty Blackbird - 7
Seaside Sparrow - 1
Sage Thrasher - 1
"Avocet" - 1
Eastern Willet - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Townsend's Solitaire - 1
Bendire's Thrasher - 1

Congratulations to the 6 of 19 respondents getting the quiz correct:
Ben Coulter
Margie Joy
Robert McNab
Su Snyder
Pam Myers
Sean Walters


Answer: Willet, Boat-tailed Grackle

Quiz #464 (2012-3-09) Solution

Click on picture(s) for a larger view.
The picture was taken in February.

Solution by Tony Leukering


White geese and not-so-white geese, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the field to suffer the slings and arrows of the lack of Ross's Goose from ones state/province/county/yard list or to take pen in hand and tick it off, and by so marking, end them.

With apologies to The Bard, we begin this week's attempt to avoid the slings and arrows of the CFO Photo Quiz by choosing yea or nay on the presence of Ross's Goose in this field (and it was truly a field) of Snow Geese. The very first thing to recall is that juvenile Snow Geese are easy, as long as one has ruled out hybrid geese and youngster Greater White-fronteds. That is because juvenile Ross's Geese are nearly all white, with just some darker smudgy bits here and there. The bird so comically looking into the camera is a first-year Snow Goose with most of its juvenal plumage intact -- it is basically brownish-gray (or grayish-brown, if you prefer), with those fancy, long, black-bordered, white scapulars hanging down. Most of the other geese in the picture are also first-cycle Snows in various states of transition from juvenal to adult-like colors. We can even see the large grin patch (the dark flattened oval at the meeting of mandible and maxilla) on the beak on the head sticking into the bottom of the frame, which is a key feature in differentiating Snow and Ross's geese. Since all but one of the truly white geese are completely facing away and out of focus -- and are, thus, unreliably identified, we should probably concentrate our hopes and dreams for our state/province/county/yard list on the adult white goose in the right of the frame. It is only mostly facing away, but, perhaps, something might be done with the bird's bill to give us a clue; it certainly looks at least somewhat smaller than the young Snow Geese between it and us. The angle, though, may preclude any confidence in assigning a name to the beast, as it is really impossible to be certain of the bird's bill's shape, though it does look a bit long and slender to be the bill of a Ross's Goose. In the end, unless provided a better view, we are better off leaving it as unidentified, even if we assume that it is a Snow Goose.

Had all of us known that the field in question is in the Skagit, Washington, area, in February, we could be fairly certain that our assumption that all geese in the picture are Snow Geese would be correct, because this area supports all (or virtually all) of the Siberian-breeding Snow Geese during winter. Because Ross's Goose does not breed in Siberia, instead would arrive locally from a somewhat mirror direction, records of the species in the area are exceedingly few. I took this picture of a mass of Siberian Snow Geese on 5 February 2006. There were at least 3 Siberian neck collars on geese close to the road; who knows how many more there were amongst the masses. Thanks to Cameron Cox for escorting me here and explaining about these geese.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Snow x Ross's Goose - 1
Ross's Goose - 1

Congratulations to the 14 of 16 getting the quiz correct:
Ben Coulter
Margaret Smith
Patty McKelvey
Robert McNab
Nick Komar
Margie Joy
Pam Myers
Jim Nowjack
Richard Jeffers
Kirk Huffstater
Peter Wilkinson
Bryan Guarente
Sean Walters
Logan Kahle

Answer: Snow Goose