Last week's bird was a little on the tricky side, only because this species is infrequently seen in juvenile plumage: Crested Caracara. Along both coasts, as well as many inland areas, shorebird migration is in full swing. This week's bird is actually on of the later species to move south and looks very similar to a close cousin that lives on the opposite coast.
Last week's bird was from the somewhat tricky group of smaller terns. The key to identifying that particular bird was the dark carpal bar on the folded forewing. Other small North American terns, including Arctic, Aleutian, and Least (immature), show this feature but it is generally not as prominent. Although you didn't have knowledge of where the image was mad, only the Least Tern in that group is very likely to be seen in Florida (Arctic Terns do, but very rarely).
Last week's mystery bird was pretty non-descript without a lot of clear identifying features. From bill shape we can determine it is a warbler, the real key however was the little orange patch showing at the top of our bird's head: Orange-crowned Warbler.
In last week's quiz we had two female members of their respective species to identify. The key field marks to look for from this angle on these finches are the bill shape and streaking on the breast. The bird on the right has a short bill that has a little bit of curvature on the upper part of the bill (the "culmen"). In addition, the streaking on the breast is blurry and grayish, these field marks pointing us to the very widespread House Finch. The bird on the left has a longer bill with a straighter culmen and more distinct streaking on the breast; she's a Cassin's Finch. The female Purple Finch is similar, but has a shorter bill like the House Finch and, typically, a little more and darker streaking on the breast down to the belly.
Last week our subject species was a bird of the desert southwest, Phainopepla, a great name that just rolls right off your tongue. They are a member of a small family, Silky-flycatchers, that are actually more closely related to waxwings than they are to the tyrant flycatchers. Of the family's four members, only the Phainopepla occurs in North America.
The day almost got away without posting this week's quiz - oops!
The answer to last week's quiz was Dark-eyed Junco. Dark-eyed Juncos come in 5 different races and are different in appearance regionally, this one is of the Gray-headed variety. For this week a duck that may be kind of tough to get a handle on. Or, for some, maybe not.
