Friday Quiz #10
Last week's bird was a Spotted Sandpiper and, since shorebirds are so much fun, let's continue with another this week. This bird was found on the shoreline of Resurrection Bay near Seward, Alaska.
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August 25, 2006
August 19, 2006
Friday Quiz #9
Last week's quiz bird a little confusing for me at first but after much deliberation decided that it could only be a Bonaparte's Gull. For this week we have a shorebird that had, up until the other day, proven to be a tough one for me to get. I made the image at the western end of Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge east of Tok, Alaska.
(It is worth noting that Tetlin NWR borders Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve on the north; this park is the largest in area of all the U.S. National Parks at over 13 million acres. These two huge areas border the Yukon Territory on their eastern edges and, in turn, adjoin Canada's Kluane National Park & Preserve. The 2 national parks combined with the refuge protect approximately 19 million acres and represent the largest protected area in the world!)
August 12, 2006
Friday Quiz #8 (a day late)
So we're a little late after all but settled in up here in the Yukon where it is about 45 degrees here this morning. Last week's bird was a female Blue Grouse who was still tending to a group of just barely flying young.
This week's mystery bird is from one of the most confusing families - the Larids. Gulls, terns, and the Black Skimmer make up this group and gulls come in all sizes and plumages. This particular specimen was lurking around the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area though, unlike the other gulls around, did not seem to be scavenging on the salmon carcasses left behing by the bears. It appeared to be feeding in the water - possibly the salmon roe (eggs)?
Have fun!
August 04, 2006
Friday Quiz #7
Yikes! Another late post with the Friday Quiz. Things haven't been great for image making this week and with the sun shining today I tried to make the most of it. I'm currently in the mountains of west central British Columbia and that is where this week's quiz bird can be found.
The answer to Quiz #5 was Steller's Jay - who are aka "Camp Robber" for their habit of flying right to your picnic table and stealing food (Gray Jays have also earned this monikor). Actually this very bird landed on the mirror of my truck as I was preparing to leave the area. Not bashful at all.
Good luck with this week's (confusing) bird!
July 21, 2006
Friday Quiz #5
Last week's bird was a little tricky, I suppose, with some 6 sub-species of Dark-eyed Junco, knowing the range we can narrow down the list of possible suspects to 3: Slate-colored, Pink-sided, and Oregon. Looking closely at the Pink-sided we see that in adult plumages the lores (the fleshy area between the base of the bill and the eyes) is black, eliminating this sub-species as a contender. The Slate-colored female can be similar in appearance but, in mid-July, highly unlikely as they nest in the Boreal forests of Canada and would be extremely rare in mid-summer. In addition, our bird has a a full grey hood where the Slate-colored "brown" female has brown on the back of the head. So the answer is female Dark-eyed Junco, Oregon sub-species.
This week's bird is also a forest dweller that was photographed in western Montana. Good luck!
July 14, 2006
Friday Quiz #4
Last week's quiz was definitely a toughie since there wasn't a whole lot to go on. What you couldn't see that made it so tough were the blue feathers on the wings - our bird was a juvenile Mountain Bluebird.
This week's should be a little easier, the biggest downside being it is difficult to tell the bill shape since this bird's is full of bugs.
Good Luck!
July 07, 2006
Friday Quiz #3
The answer to last week's quiz was Horned Lark.
Since that one seemed to be just a little too easy, this week we'll just have to get a tough again. If it were an adult it would probably be easy to get, but everbody likes a challenge, right? Even I struggled with this one some; more of a profile would certainly make it a little easier. There were 4 of them total perched on a wooden fence just a few feet from one another.
Good luck!
June 30, 2006
Friday Quiz #2
This week's quiz bird is widespread thoughout most of North American in wide open spaces and avoids wooded areas. There are an amazing 21 recognized subspecies of this bird (National Geographic Complete Birds of North America) and so this might not look exactly like one in your area.
Last week's tough Empidonax flycatcher was the Least Flycatcher. The other common empid in the northwestern part of North Dakota would be the Willow Flycatcher, slightly larger (though impossible to determine in the field) and with a thin, faint white eyering versus the bold white eyering on the Least being the major fieldmark to look for to determine the species. Habitat is also a consideration with the Least prefering deciduous woodlands with a brushy understory where the Willow prefers brushy areas at the edges of meadows or pastures. For those in the east and in Canada the Alder Flycatcher (among a few others, probably) comes into the fray to help confuse the issue.
(Thanks! to everyone who submitted an answer.)
June 23, 2006
Friday Bird Quiz #1
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.