Ah, back to a flying bird; much better than those pesky facing-away sparrows. The short, wide, and fairly flat bill and longish, narrow wings do a pretty good at ruling virtually all ABA-Area bird families out, except for the Anatidae. I am certain that many of us do not particularly care for the viewing angle on this beastie.
20 July — 29 July, 2019
$3,900 per person, double occupancy from Bogotá, Colombia
Harboring almost 2,000 species, about of 1/5 of all those known on the planet, and with more hummingbird species (168 and counting!) than any other country, it is the hottest birding destination around right now.
31 October — 19 November, 2020
$14,300 — $23,500 per person, from Ushuaia, Chile
This journey to Antarctica is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and cannot come more highly recommended! Complementing astounding vistas are vast colonies of majestic penguins, brash skuas, giant petrels, weird sheathbills, somnolent seals and feeding whales that all add life to the region’s stark and amazing beauty.
Brown upperparts, longish tail, and pink legs on a bird standing on the ground: we can probably start the ID ball rolling with New World sparrows (Passerellidae; until recently, they were housed in Emberizidae). Yes, we can rule out the Old World Passer species [family Passeridae (e.g., House Sparrow), which are not particularly closely related to New World sparrows].
Our departing quiz bird may annoy some birders, as it did not stick around long enough to be identified. However, such birds can often be identified...
One aspect of identifying birds with which I see many struggle, is birds not in those ideal, field-guide postures. These non-profile views usually do not present most of the characters used most often to identify the species. However, this aspect of identifying birds may well be the single feature that best differentiates the highly experienced, highly skilled birders from the rest.
Ugh! While those of us that excel at identifying birds by shape probably consider this quiz straightforward, even easy, the rest of us may struggle. However, I look at photo quizzes as learning opportunities, and this is one doozy of an opportunity. So, let’s buckle down and look at our quiz bird carefully.
IOANA SERITAN Associate Editor, Birding magazine Welcome to Birding Online! From this page, all ABA members can access the extended online content from the April 2018 issue of Birding magazine. The complete issue, containing both print and online [...]
This month's quiz bird produced an interesting array of responses, but most were of some species of duck. The wide bill and webbed feet certainly support such an identification.
Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of birders get exasperated, even give up, on a bird that plays hide-and-seek in vegetation. They seem to want to always get that “field-guide view.” As we all know, birds often provide only partial views of themselves – it is a survival trait. Rather than get upset and turn away, keep watching it. While one may never get a full, clear view of the bird, it may well show enough of the critical pieces to be able to confidently slap an ID on the bird.
