Quiz #421 (2011-4-03) Solution

Solution by Tony Leukering

Bryan Guarente started off his response with an appropriate exclamation:

"Holy primary length, Batman!"

Indeed, that feature was the primary (forgive the pun) reason for using this photo and I'd guess that the one respondent heading off in the wrong direction overlooked it. As suggested by Bryan, with primary projection that long and considering the habitat, longspurs and larks are the best bets to fill out the potential solution set; any other options in this habitat with this general color pattern would have considerably shorter wings. The dark nape and strong back pattern rule out Horned Lark and the darkish legs and strong rufous panel in the wing eliminate Sky Lark from consideration, leaving us with the world's four species of longspurs.

A quick nomenclatural and taxonomic aside: As noted by Peter Wilkinson, one of the four longspur species is of widespread occurrence in the Old World and, in fact, was described from there and has been called Lapland Bunting in English (sensu stricto) for a long time. When the British colonized the New World -- obviously, none of the serious birders of the day were amongst the colonizers, they willy-nilly applied names that they knew to species present on this side of the Pond, most of which were unrelated to the source species of those names (e.g., blackbird, robin, warbler, flycatcher). Interestingly, we kept the first name of Lapland Bunting, but decided that a new second name was in order, for whatever reason, and longspurs have been known as such here for quite a while. The longspurs have been housed among the Emberizidae for as long as that family has existed, but recent genetic evidence encouraged the American Ornithologists' Union to separate them in their own family, the Calcariidae. More interestingly, they moved the longspurs away from the Emberizidae, placing the family immediately before the warblers!

Now, I return you to our regularly scheduled program.

Once among the longspurs, primary projection quickly divides our options into two groups, the arctic breeders and the prairie breeders, and excises the latter from our potential solution set. As noted by Tyler Bell, the spacing of primaries in the wingtip (wing formula) easily separates the two arctic breeders, with Lapland showing regular spacing and Smith's showing a large gap or two (see illustration in The Sibley Guide). So, other than general coloration and habitat, we didn't need to look at much else on our quiz bird other than the primaries in order to arrive at the correct ID. Of course, one-features IDs are not to be trusted, but various and sundry other field marks visible in the quiz pic support that ID. I took this picture of a Lapland Longspur at Cape May Point S.P., Cape May Co., NJ, on 7 November 2010.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Savannah Sparrow - 1

Congratulations to the 28 of 29 getting the quiz correct:
Al Guarente
Jennifer Courtemanche
Joel Such
Christian Nunes
Thomas Hall
Pam Myers
Devich Farbotnik
Peter Wilkinson
Robert McNab
Ann Reichhardt
Margaret Smith
Josh Parks
Patty McKelvey
Kirk Huffstater
Su Snyder
Donna Nespoli
Sean Walters
Liston Rice
Tyler Bell
Rudi Nuissl
Richard Jeffers
Adrian Hinkle
Margie Joy
Diane Porter
Marcel Such
Bryan Guarente
Chishun Kwong
Joe Bens

Answer: Lapland Longspur

Quiz #420 (2011-4-02) Solution

Click on picture(s) for a larger view.

Solution by Tony Leukering

All of this week's respondents arrowed to the correct genus, with the lion's share of those selecting the correct species. The genus Chordeiles is a small one (only three species), all of which occur in the ABA area, but with most of that area being visited by only one. Or none. Identification of nighthawks is quite difficult, particularly for perched birds. In fall, accurate ID often requires first ageing the bird in question, as variation in plumage across the broad range of Common Nighthawk can swamp the differences between species, so eliminating some of that variation by determining the bird's age is most useful. With this week's quiz bird, we are in luck, as the bird is not only readily aged, but sexed, too.

As noted by a number of respondents, our quiz bird is an adult male, determined so by the distinct and fairly wide white subterminal band on the tail. So, we don't have to deal with the multiplicity of juvenal plumages. However, in some instances, it might have been better -- or, at least, easier, had the bird been a female, because that wide and bright white primary patch would have eliminated both Lesser and Antillean from consideration. But, alas, because it's a male, all three species are still in the possible solution set.

Returning our gaze to the primaries, that white patch on the primaries looks to be too proximal to be that of the patch of a Lesser Nighthawk, but the angle at which we gaze might make that assessment a bit problematic. However, looking at the other end of the primaries, we can see that the wingtips extend well beyond the tail tip, confirming our excision of Lesser Nighthawk from the solution set; Lesser's wingtips just barely reach past the tail tip, even in adult males (which have longer, more pointed wingtips than do females; juveniles have even shorter wingtips -- in all species). The bright white underparts provide the third and final nail in the coffin of Lesser Nighthawk as a possibility.

Antillean Nighthawk is even more similar to Common than is Lesser; the two were even considered conspecific for a while. The two species share a wide and more-basal primary patch, but Antillean shares the buffy underparts of Lesser and adult males sport a narrower subterminal tail band than shown by our quiz bird. I took this picture of an adult male Common Nighthawk south of Midway, Baca Co., CO, on 30 May 2011.

One respondent's answer neglected capitalization, so was precluded from being correct for the competition.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Antillean Nighthawk - 1
Lesser Nighthawk - 1

Congratulations to the 24 of 26 getting the quiz correct:
Tyler Bell
Thomas Hall
Su Snyder
Nick Komar
Kirk Huffstater
Pam Myers
Patty McKelvey
Jennifer Courtemanche
Rudi Nuissl
Josh Parks
Margie Joy
Al Guarente
Liston Rice
Devich Farbotnik
Bruce Cyganowski
Diane Porter
Richard Jeffers
Ted Cooper
Peter Wilkinson
Marcel Such
Margaret Smith
Bryan Guarente
Chishun Kwong
Joel Such

Answer: Common Nighthawk