8 replies to this topic

[Chaseman]

This little guy showed up today. I would say he was gray, but doing a search for little gray birds in Georgia didn't come back with anything I could ID him to.

[Liam]

That's a juvenile Brown-headed Nuthatch.

[TheBillyPilgrim]

That's a juvenile Brown-headed Nuthatch.

Agreed.

[Chaseman]

Good Lord I give up! I would have NEVER thought to look at that. How the heck you guys do this is beyond me, but thanks!

[Pat B.]

Good Lord I give up! I would have NEVER thought to look at that. How the heck you guys do this is beyond me, but thanks!

Seriously, one thing that is helpful is to study field guides even when you're not looking up a specific bird. I do this a lot. In this case, although to my knowledge I've seen only 2 Nuthatches of any type in my life (at least that I can remember), his stance immediately said "Nuthatch" to me. Nearly all pictures of Nuthatches show the birds in something akin to this position. I of course didn't know which Nuthatch it was (and so kept my opinions to myself), but I knew it was one of them.

[BarnSwallow]

Ditto to what Pat B said. I just look through my field guide on a regular basis. I've seen birds that I'd never seen before, and known right away what they were, even with poor views, because I saw the pics and descriptions so many times.

[psweet]

Right -- field guides are really misnamed. The more time you spend flipping through them for fun, the less you need them in the field.

[Chaseman]

I have a lot of brown headed nuthatches, but this is how I am used to seeing them!

Don't worry, I set him free, but he had done this before so I made him pose for pics first.

[The Nature Trail]

Haha! We had a blue jay get stuck upside down in a tube feeder, after a squirrel chewed the lid off. He was not a happy camper when we set him loose!