Quiz #352 (2010-2-10) Solution

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

Answer by Tony Leukering

For the second week in a row, we have a poor, misunderstood adult Red-tailed Hawk being mobbed by some annoying, aggressive passerine! Perhaps interesting to you is that the individual hawk may very well be the same bird in the two quizzes! That is because this is one of the resident pair at the Villas WMA, Cape May Co., NJ, (here in early May 2010) and it rarely is able to make a pass over the area without attracting attention from those vicious passerines. Poor thing.

I know that I may have jumped the gun on identifying one of the birds in the quiz, but, hey, that's my prerogative as quizmeister. We can rule out Ferruginous Hawk, many of which can show at least something of a reddish tail, by the fact that our quiz bird lacks any obvious bit of wing panel (window), a feature that Ferruginous always shows and which only juvenile Red-tailed Hawks do.

The black bird may cause more problems. However, this quiz had something of a different focus than most others that I've conducted, as it was intended as a test of retention. That is, I wanted to see whether the regular respondents would remember the details of the solution for the last time that I ran a quiz crow. (Yes, we can rule out Common Raven by the bird's lack of a wedge-shaped tail and by its too-round wings. We can also rule out Northwestern and Tamaulipas crows by the caveat in red, above.)

Back in June 2009, I ran Mr. Bill Mystery Quiz #305. Many of the regulars that provided explanation of how they got to their answer this week noted that previous quiz. Unfortunately, some respondents did not, but most of those still got the this week's quiz correct. After perusing that previous quiz, one can see that this week's crow must be an American Crow, due to the obvious six fingers.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Great Blue Heron - 1
Fish Crow - 3

Congratulations to the 12 of 15 getting the quiz correct:
Tyler Bell
Robert McNab
Claire Mix
Kevin Kerr
Nick Komar
Al Guarente
Joel Such
Margie Joy
Aaron Brees
Peter Wilkinson
Bryan Guarente
Chris Warren

Answer: Red-tailed Hawk, American Crow

Quiz #351 (2010-2-09) Solution

Click on picture(s) for a larger view.

Answer by Margie Joy and Tony Leukering

In birding, careful scanning often reveals individual birds theretofore overlooked. Margie Joy provided most of this week's answer and proved herself adept at transfering that birding skill to perusal of online photos.

"This week's quiz photo shows two birds, a raptor readily identified as a Red-tailed Hawk and a much smaller bird giving it the Dickens, a common sight hereabouts at this time of year.

"I identified the Red-tailed Hawk by its reddish tail and dark comma/dash underwing marks. This is how I first learned to ID Red-taileds, though it doesn't work for all color morphs and I've since learned several other ways.

"The smaller bird gives fewer clues to its identification. I can see only the back half of the underside of the bird, showing dark/blackish undertail with white tip, dark underwings, and white undertail coverts and vent. However, the obvious clue is behavior. Lots of small birds will mob a raptor, though not many are so aggressive as to get quite this close, and kingbirds come immediately to mind. Looking at ABA-area kingbirds, Eastern is the only one that matches the quiz bird's description. Other kingbirds share some, but not all, of this bird's features. Cassin's has the correct tail marks and wing color but has yellow undertail coverts and vent. Western is similar to Cassin's but shows white on the tail edges, not the tip. Thick-billed has very pale undertail coverts and vent, lacks white on its black tail, and has pale underwings. Undertails and underwings of other kingbirds appear to be much paler than the quiz bird's, and those undertails that could be called blackish in shadow lack white tips.

"Of course, not all birds that mob raptors are kingbirds. So, just to be sure all bases were covered, I looked for generally dark-tailed birds with white undertail coverts and vent. I found Black Phoebe, some of the blue-black swallows, and a gnatcatcher, but could not make any of them fit."

Thanks, Margie. I took this picture of an Eastern Kingbird mobbing an adult Red-tailed Hawk at Villas WMA, Cape May Co., 1 July 2009. Careful scrutiny of the mobbing bird in the expanded view provided below should tell us not only the species, but the sex, as the bird’s outermost primary (visible most easily on the left wing) doesn’t have the distinctive emarginated tip of a male kingbird, thus it’s a female (assuming that it’s an adult, which it is).

Four respondents provided only one species in their answers. One of those neglected to provide appropriate captilization to the one species name submitted.

After nine weeks, Joel Such holds sole possession of first place in the quarter's competition, followed closely by six others with 8 of 9 correct.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 1
Cassin's Kingbird - 1

Congratulations to the 14 of 21 getting the quiz correct:
Robert McNab
Joel Such
Marcel Such
Bryan Guarente
Nick Komar
Thomas Hall
Liston Rice
Kevin Kerr
Aaron Brees
Al Guarente
Richard Jeffers
Margie Joy
Peter Wilkinson
Joe Bens

Answer: Red-tailed Hawk, Eastern Kingbird