Answer to Previous: This picture of a Calliope Hummingbird was taken in Colorado. Chunky shape, buffy coloring, and primaries which appear to draw even with the tail (although, yes, a better view of the tail would help) support this ID.
Photo courtesy of Jacob Drucker
This birds look awfully familiar…
Jeez… I have one exactly like that.
it looks like a dark South Polar Skua but it also could be a Pomarine Jaeger dark juvenile .
Looks like a Jaeger of some sort, but I get a Skua “jizz”.
Try a completely different family, guys.
What about a Sooty or Flesh-Footed shearwater.
“This bird is uniformly dark, and obviously a waterbird. Its proportions are anything but duck-like. The feet don’t project beyond the tail, and aren’t huge, and the long wings rule out coot. This leaves Charadriiformes (shorebirds, gulls, etc.). Looking at range maps, the only dark Charadriids in Washington are Heerman’s Gull and Black Oystercatcher. Wandering Tattler can look dark above, but the under parts on this bird are clearly dark as well. The uniform darkness, long thin wings, and visibly rounded head shape reveal the bird to be a Black Oystercatcher. Taken late July, Washington” Um, Drucker, nobody except you… Read more »
Btw, I say “ID marks” since in some photos, you can use the background habitat as a clue and that doesn’t qualify as a “field mark”……..
Lack of location is not Jacob’s fault, that was my doing. Thanks for your suggestions Chris, I’ll consider them for future quizzes…