Whatbird.com

Here is Quiz #14. Please email your answer to: featherbrain1@gmail.com. 

As for location, I'm in the process of figgerin' that out. 

Sorry, I accidentally double-posted and can't delete this post.

CinArt:

How about a Wood Pewee

Remember, email me the answer directly to featherbrain1@gmail.com

As to the location, keep in mind that all quizzes don't need locations, only some of the harder ones. However you can be sure that all the quizzes are ABA area birds.

Alright guys! Here's the next one!

I'm not going to give the location unless I think it would be too hard without it.

featherbrain:

Congratulations to:

 

ValleyGirl

Bird Brain

Ephily

Whidden

Andy Lee

Bird Man of Texas

Nancy

 

Next one coming soon!

 

Any particular reason why I'm not included on this list?

featherbrain:

There is a family of birds that matches nicely, Cormorants and Anhingas.

Not to be totally and entirely obnoxious, but technically Anhinga is placed in Anhingidae (darters), whereas cormorants (and shags) are placed in Phalacrocoracidae.

tim.birdboy:

featherbrain:

Congratulations to:

 

ValleyGirl

Bird Brain

Ephily

Whidden

Andy Lee

Bird Man of Texas

Nancy

 

Next one coming soon!

 

Any particular reason why I'm not included on this list?

featherbrain:

There is a family of birds that matches nicely, Cormorants and Anhingas.

Not to be totally and entirely obnoxious, but technically Anhinga is placed in Anhingidae (darters), whereas cormorants (and shags) are placed in Phalacrocoracidae.

The reason you are not included in the list is because I never received an email with your answer, you must email me your answer, that way it is easier for me to compile everybody's answer. No emailed answer = a wrong answer, no exceptions.

And yes you are correct, Anhinga is in a seperate family, but I think you're the only one worried about specifics. Cormorants and Anhinga are very closely related, so even though they are in a different genus, that's man's best guess at classifying these birds, and the way taxanomy goes, next year they'll split this and join this and darters may be joined in with Cormorants!

featherbrain:

And yes you are correct, Anhinga is in a seperate family, but I think you're the only one worried about specifics. Cormorants and Anhinga are very closely related, so even though they are in a different genus, that's man's best guess at classifying these birds, and the way taxanomy goes, next year they'll split this and join this and darters may be joined in with Cormorants!

Well, yeah, I probably am too nit-picky...but there's a difference between being specific and being accurate.

Alright guys, before I get into the answer, I want to ask a question, I've mentioned it before, but didn't really get a response. Do you want to keep score, or just keep on going as we are?

Ok, the answer:

This bird is overall a small bird with a small bill. It has bright yellow underparts and a gray head, that's about all we can make out on it. It brings to mind warblers and vireos, but there is no US vireo that has that extent of bright yellow on the underparts. So that leaves us with warblers, most warblers have tail spots, but this one doesn't, so that rules out a most warblers (Almost every Dendroica warbler -- the largest wood-warbler family in the US -- has tail spots). Ok, bright yellow underparts and a gray head and no tail spots, there are really only warbler species that match this bird (all other warblers with yellow underparts can be ruled out by tail spots and/or lack of gray hood), Canada and Nashville Warbler. They both fit this bird well... at first glance. However, upon close inspection, we see that the bird doesn't have a prominent pink bill (very hard to make out with this photo, so we can't rely totally on that), and the main factor, the undertail coverts. When looking at a warbler, you most look at the under side of the tail and the undertail coverts. Most species can be IDed by this alone. In our bird we see bright yellow undertail coverts, Canada Warbler has snow white undertail coverts sharply contrasting with the yellow belly. This leaves us with Nashville, really the only thing that might be questionable is the white fringes to the undertail feathers, some might of thought this was actually white outer tail feathers, but it is merely a trick of the light.

I photographed this male Nashville Warbler in Northern California in April.

Here's the next one!