Quiz #410 (2011-3-05) Solution

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Solution by Margie Joy and Tony Leukering

Margie Joy provided a fairly in-depth answer, so we'll start with her words.

"After attempting to sort out the dramatic pose and determining that the bird is upside down, I can see that this quiz bird shows the bold black-and-white underwing pattern of Swallow-tailed Kite (and a few other birds), with some additional clues as to its ID. Those distinctively-patterned wings are pointed and slightly kinked, with a straight trailing edge. The body and undertail coverts are white. The head is in heavy shadow and looks like it is bent back so that I am looking at the throat and the underside of the bill, which could be short and dark if I’m seeing it right. Or, maybe the head is swiveled around so that I am looking at the top of the bill and the eye. I cannot really tell for sure; messing with it in Photoshop doesn’t really help. Either way, I’m going for a white head with a short dark bill. The tail is black with long outer feathers, leading me to think that it’s forked, although I can’t really see enough of it to be certain. The fork doesn’t look as deep as field guide illustrations (all in normal positions) show, but this could be a young bird or maybe it’s just the perspective. The legs are short and gray, with darker feet. These marks fit with my guess of Swallow-tailed Kite, unless I’m missing something really obvious."

Indeed, Margie, you are not missing anything, and your second thought about the tail is correct: it is spread wide in the severe maneuver that the bird is conducting, thus reducing the apparent deepness of the fork. I took this picture of a Swallow-tailed Kite in West Cape May, Cape May Co., NJ, on 29 April 2011.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
none

Congratulations to the 19 of 19 getting the quiz correct:
Peter Wilkinson
Thomas Hall
Kirk Huffstater
Al Guarente
Tyler Bell
Adrian Hinkle
Robert McNab
Christian Nunes
George Cresswell
Chuck Carlson
Pam Myers
Margie Joy
Su Snyder
Bryan Guarente
Christopher Hinkle
Diane Porter
Shane Blodgett
Marcel Such
Joel Such

Answer: Swallow-tailed Kite

Quiz #409 (2011-3-04) Solution

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Solution by Tony Leukering

The flock of herons in this week's quiz photo are obviously poorly lit -- perhaps due to the lateness of the day, though the upperparts of various of the individuals are well-lit enough that we might take the apparent dark color as representing reality, particularly the lead bird in the bottom row. There also appears to be little or no difference in structure across the flock, so we might be dealing with only one species. In addition to the overall darkness of the upperparts of various of the birds, the first and last birds of the five in the bottom row show a distinct lack of coverts-remiges contrast, suggesting that our birds are not very poorly-lit Great Blue Herons showing no paleness on the head. That is because that species shows strong contrast between its blackish remiges and medium blue-gray median and lesser coverts, as does Gray Heron. Additionally, the long-necked Ardea herons have a distinct and obvious bulge hanging below the front of the body, which is the coiled neck -- much like that of Great Egret and different from all the medium-sized herons, with Reddish Egret being somewhat intermediate in this respect. However, given the uniformity of size and shape in the flock and the near-lack of any dangling of neck in some of the birds, Reddish Egret is probably also ruled out. The legs are simply too long for these birds to be Green Herons or any species of night-heron.

The above should mean that we have our solution, but let's deal with a few plumage and soft-parts color aspects. Reddish Egret has medium-toned plumage on the head and neck, pale facial skin, and a pale basal half or so to the bill, the last contrasting with a distinctly black bill tip. Our quiz birds show neither the neck/body color-tone contrast, nor the one on the bill. The bellies are obviously not white, nor are the chins, ruling out Tricolored Heron and Western Reef-Heron, respectively. Additionally, there is no underwing contrast that is so typical of Tricolored Heron. Finally, the middle bird of the left column of three and the one immediately behind it both have a strong suggestion of blue on the front of the head, either the facial skin or the base of the bill , and that provides any final clincher that we might need. Rachel Hopper took this picture of 12 adult Little Blue Herons at Tulum, Quintana Roo (keen-tah-nah row-oh), Mexico, on 11 March 2011.

Three respondents provided answers in the plural form: "___ Herons." Since official names of species are not plural (except for things like 'yellowlegs'), the two responses with the correct species were precluded from being correct for the competition; the other response presented an incorrect species.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Green Heron - 1
Great Blue Heron - 2
Reddish Egret - 1

Congratulations to the 16 of 20 getting the quiz correct:
Robert McNab
Tyler Bell
Pam Myers
George Cresswell
Al Guarente
Adrian Hinkle
Margie Joy
Thomas Hall
Ali Iyoob
Su Snyder
Kirk Huffstater
Chuck Carlson
Joe Bens
Diane Porter
Marcel Such
Joel Such

Answer: Little Blue Heron