Just for fun I’d like to revive an old email tradition by posting a bird ID quiz every Friday (unless I’m somewhere without Internet access). You can answer just for yourself, email it to me, or post a comment with the answer, no matter how you do it I’ll include the answer in the following week’s quiz.

And, just because I’m a cruel individual, what better way than to start off with an Empidonax flycatcher. For those readers who are not avid birders, “Empids” are members of a genus of 12 flycatchers that are very similar to each other and, quite often, can only be identified by voice. Region, however, plays a big part in narrowing the field and, given that this photo was taken this morning at Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge in the western half of North Dakota, the field in this case is pretty much narrowed down to two (though a third could possibly be argued, I suppose). For this quiz I’ve included a second image (below the fold) to help - though most of the time you only get one.