Quiz #466 (2012-3-11) Solution

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Solution by Tony Leukering

[I apologize for the tardiness in getting the recent solutions posted, but I am currently working in Texas away from Internet access, so I'm getting to them as I can.]

This week's quiz was unanimously thought to be a raptor, perhaps at least in part due to the apparently hooked bill. With our bird's dipped-in-ink wingtips, pale underwings and underparts, and longish tail, we have few choices that fit. Swainson's Hawk might be considered, but adults have the secondaries entirely dark below, while youngsters -- which have less-black secondaries -- sport blackish streaking on the underparts, not reddish barring. Ferruginous Hawk might offer a safe haven, the bird does appear to have a wrist comma, but there is just too much black in the primaries and secondaries. The wings are too long and narrow for any accipiter.

In fact, the black wingtip is well outside the pattern for all but one ABA-area species: Northern Harrier. That black wingtip also allows us to sex the bird as a male and age it as an adult, as females and all juveniles lack black wingtips. While some/many/most might think that the reddish barring and apparently brownish inner wing on the top side may suggest immaturity, I am not convinced. Virtually every time that I get really good looks at black-wing-tipped harriers, they show at least some barring underneath and some brown on the back. So, unless I am being followed around by second-year male Northern Harriers, I suspect that most fully adult males show some of this. I agree that it may well be likely that younger males are more likely to show such markings and to show them more extensively, but I feel that Northern Harrier is quite different from what is considered by the AOU to be the Old World subspecies and called by Brits, Hen Harrier, adult males of which are generally clean white underneath and clean gray above.

One correct respondent's answer included a guess as to sex directly in the answer. Had that guess been incorrect, I would have had to have marked the response as incorrect (please read the rules). I took this picture of an adult male Northern Harrier at Cape May Point S. P., Cape May Co., NJ, on 22 October 2010.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Swainson's Hawk - 1

Congratulations to the 20 of 21 getting the quiz correct:
Tyler Bell
Peter Wilkinson
Robert McNab
Ben Coulter
George Cresswell
Richard Jeffers
Logan Kahle
Kirk Huffstater
Su Snyder
Thomas Hall
Margaret Smith
Al Guarente
Margie Joy
Pam Myers
Maureen Briggs
Nathaniel Behl
Chishun Kwong
Bryan Guarente
Joe Bens
Sean Walters

Answer: Northern Harrier

Quiz #465 (2012-3-10) Solution

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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