Click photo to enlarge.

Yet another dark, flying bird to test our birding mettle. This bird’s longer bill should steer us away from the various raptorial orders, however. In fact, the combination of our quiz bird’s mostly black body plumage, an apparent white patch on the relatively short wing, the long tail, and extensive white on the head dramatically reduces the ABA-Area identification options. In fact, there are only two such.

Please submit the correct Common or English name exactly as it appears in the ABA Checklist.

What species is this?

Photos and answers are supplied by Tony Leukering, an ornithologist based in southeast Colorado, with strong interests in bird migration, distribution, and identification. He has worked for four different bird observatories from coast to coast and considers himself particularly adept at taking quiz photos (that is, bad pictures!). Leukering is the primary author of the In The Scope column in Colorado Birds and has served on the Colorado and New Jersey bird records committees. He is also interested in most everything else that flies, particularly moths and odonates.