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Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
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 01-13-2008, 10:49 AM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
I know I said I would post in the evening, but found myself on the computer so why not post now?
A few guidelines for answers, please make sure you give the up to date name (i.e. Green Heron, not Green-backed Heron), and please spell it as close if you can, if you have no idea how to spell it look it up! I'm not going to be really strict on this issue, just makes it a bit easier for me.
DO NOT post your answers here as it might influence other peoples answers, email it directly to me at: featherbrain1@gmail.com
Alright, here's the first one! This quiz is working with the always present bad lighting situation, go by shape and what colors you can make out!
Good Luck!
featherbrain  Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 01-13-2008, 2:56 PM |
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Ephily
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Joined on 05-25-2006
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Philadelphia, PA
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Posts 1,008
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Do we get to know where the picture was taken?
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| 01-13-2008, 3:21 PM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
 Ephily:
Do we get to know where the picture was taken?
Well I was meaning to do that but since several people have already guessed for this one you'll have to go just by the photo.
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 01-20-2008, 6:37 AM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
This weeks photo quiz dealt more or less with the ever present backlight issue. When seeing birds in heavy sunlight (making the bird washed out) or in shadows, we have to go by shape and impression more than anything. Foruneately, this photo lets us see some color. Before we even get to color, we need to decide on the shape and size of the bird which can at least help us categorize it. Obviously the bird is not a hawk, duck, heron or any other large bird like that, so we can say that this bird is a fairly small songbird. It doesn't look small enough to be a warbler, yet not large enough to be a crow, so we can safely say it's approximately the size of a Robin. Overall the bird looks like its fairly chunky with a pretty short tail. Now, the bill shape, pretty think and conical, suggesting maybe a sparrow or grosbeak.
Now to the colors, what colors can we make out? Well, it appears that our bird has an orange belly, flanks, and breast; black or dark wings with white spots; and a dark head. Just for kicks and grins I put all the info we can pull out of this photo into the WhatBird Search, and it came up with 3 species, Black-headed Grosbeak, Brambling, and Hoary Redpoll. We can rule out Brambling and Hoary Redpoll simply by noticing that the bird doesn't have extensive white on the body. This leaves us with Black-headed Grosbeak, but I thought of another bird that looks quite similar to this bird, Spotted Towhee. Why isn't it Spotted Towhee? First of all, note how the birds tail is quite short, Spotted Towhees have pretty long tails, and noting that we can see no white whatsoever on the birds belly. Also note that there is no solid hood that goes down to the chest, instead we see that the orange from the breast wraps up around the birds neck leaving a fairly thick collar. This totally rules out Spotted Towhee, and fits nicely with Black-headed Grosbeak, but there is one more bird I want to cover, what about White-collared Seedeater? It seems to fit pretty well, the bird in the quiz picture has a white spot at the base of the primaries, as does White-collared Seedeater, (an extra note, Spotted Towhee lacks this mark). But note that the back of our bird does not contrast much in color from the wings. The main feature that rules out White-collared Seedeater is the clearly orange underparts, though some individuals might border an orange-buffy color, never would they be that dark orange underneath.
This Black-headed Grosbeak was photographed in Winthrop, Washington on June 12, 2007.
Tallies of incorrect guesses:
American Goldfinch - 1
Spotted Towhee - 2
White-collared Seedeater - 1
Congratulations to:
birdseye
tim.birdoy
raptor
Also want to congratulate birdseye for the most complete answer, including what type of tree the bird was sitting on, plus what direction the bird was facing, though I have no clue which direction it was facing birdseye guessed North, which is just as good as my guess! 
The next quiz will be posted shortly. Hope all will/have enjoyed!
Here is a cropped and edited photo showing the bird in a little better lighting. 
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 01-20-2008, 7:01 AM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Alright here's quiz 2! Definitely quite a bit tougher than quiz 1, so here's some details, taken in Georgia on May 3 (May....hmmmm... that sounds like spring migration maybe... oh no maybe I said too much!). 
For the first few quizzes I'm trying to focus on situations which we almost always face whenever we go out birding. This quiz has a combination of factors making it a pretty tough quiz, bad lighting, branches in the way, and it being directly above you only giving you a limited amount of view. Take your time, study it closely, remember you have until Saturday night to email me your answer, take all the time you need!
Remember, email me the answer at featherbrain1@gmail.com .
Enjoy! 
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 01-27-2008, 5:43 PM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
This quiz, once again, was dealing with less then optimal lighting conditions, plus the factor of branches and only seeing the bottom half of the bird, definitely a tough one!!
Now, they often say start with the head on the bird, but I'm going to disobey that "rule" and start with the tail, why? Simply because of one key factor, it has tail spots! For those who may not be familiar with this term, it is characteristic of warblers (though not all warblers have them), note how on the tail it has dark edges with white in the center of the tail, that is what they call "tail spots", because when spread, the tail shows large white spots.
That being said, we can easily group this bird as a warbler without having to go through all the other steps. Now, what type of warbler? We can rule out many by simply noting that there are no markings on its belly or flanks, other than some very interesting stripes that come down to about nearly to the undertail coverts. There are only a few species with these unique markings, American Redstart can have flank stripes and are unmarked underneath, but the tail and lack of a black throat easily rules this out. Bay breasted Warbler may appear similar at first, but note that it doesn't have any coloring on the throat. Black-throated Blue Warbler may seem similar at first, but once again no coloring on the throat of our bird. That leaves us with one species, Chestnut-sided Warbler.
I photographed this adult male Chestnut-sided Warbler in my front yard here in Georgia during the fabulous month of May.
Tallies of incorrect answers:
Black-capped Vireo - 1
Palm Warbler - 1
Congratulations to those who answered correctly:
tim.birdboy
Nancy
barredowl
Next quiz will be posted shortly, hope you all are enjoying this!!
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 01-27-2008, 5:58 PM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Here's the next one! Identify all the species in the picture.
Taken in Washington in June.
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 01-27-2008, 6:02 PM |
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JBL
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Joined on 01-25-2008
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San Francisco, California
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Posts 88
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Do we know how many species there are? Two or three?
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| 01-27-2008, 6:52 PM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Sorry, that's for me to know and for you to figure out! 
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 01-28-2008, 5:52 AM |
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tim.birdboy
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Joined on 05-19-2006
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Broken Bow, NE
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Posts 710
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Isn't there a rule about re-using used quiz photos? Guess I'm out on this one. You can add me to the "correct" list anyways, because I guessed it right when you first showed it to me, however many months ago that was.
Art Thread
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| 01-28-2008, 7:31 PM |
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JBL
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Joined on 01-25-2008
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San Francisco, California
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Posts 88
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Hi featherbrain, I'm new to this sight and am curious as to when you announce what the species are in the pictures. I emailed you by guesses.
Thanks, John
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| 01-29-2008, 8:43 AM |
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tim.birdboy
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Joined on 05-19-2006
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Broken Bow, NE
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Posts 710
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
John, featherbrain usually posts the answer to the quiz on Sundays, along with explanations why and why not it was the species guessed.
Art Thread
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| 02-03-2008, 11:06 AM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
This quiz was dealing more with how good are you at finding the birds and IDing them with "your bare eye" rather then zeroing in "with binoculars".
Well let's start off with the most visible bird, that gull there in the top of the photo. It strikes me as a medium to large sized gull with a pretty pale gray back, and... wait, are those gray primaries I see? Yes it is! That helps us tremendously, a good majority of our gulls have dark primaries (Herring, Ring-billed, Laughing, Bonaparte's etc.). Now, given the pale primaries and the location (Washington in June), we can pretty much rule this down to one species. Before I say which, let's take a look at other gulls that could be confused. Mew gull has the overall feel of the gull fits pretty well, and they can be found in Washington during the summer months (though definitely more common in winter), what rules it out? The bill seems to be pretty large in comparison to the tiny bill a Mew Gull would have, plus, you can't get away from those gray primaries! What about Thayer's? Thayer's can be pretty safely ruled out by the lack of very noticeable white spots on the primaries, plus, the primaries on a Thayer's should be a contrast in color to the mantle, plus, a Thayer's in June is almost unheard of in Washington. Well, that pretty much leaves us with... Glaucous-winged Gull, everything seems to fit nicely, plus it's the most common breeding gull in Washington (at least that was my observation, scarcely saw anything but Glaucous-winged while we were there).
Now, what else can we find in this picture? Let's move down a little bit, ahh, some duck-like birds! The 3 ducks in the front appear to be pretty brightly colored, thus, it's not too hard to conclude that these are Harlequin Ducks; what other species of duck is blue-gray overall with red flanks and a very intricately patterned (and cute) face? The paler bird behind the three males has a white facial area with a white ear spot, another obvious Harlequin, probably a 1st year male. Now, that duck a few rocks to the left, appears to be solid brown. Looking a little closer, you can see a tiny (I mean very tiny) white speck, just barely visible. It looks to be about the same shape and size, so you're just going to have to trust me that this is either a juvenile bird or a female, looking at a supplemental photo it's obvious that it's a Harlequin, but I can't quite age the bird.
I photographed this adult Glaucous-winged Gull and 3 males, 1 First year male , and 1 juvenile Harlequin Ducks on Whidbey Island, Washintong, in June.
Tallies of incorrect guesses:
Mew Gull (though this respondent did get the ducks correct)
Congratulations to:
Nancy
Andy Lee
tim.birdboy
joshc
It seems that we're having less and less respondents, is it just people are forgetting or do I need to do something different?
Next one coming here in a few minutes!
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 02-03-2008, 1:02 PM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
Alright guys, here's the next one!
Georgia in the month of May: 
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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| 02-10-2008, 11:21 AM |
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featherbrain
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Joined on 04-13-2006
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Ringgold, GA
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Posts 1,281
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Re: Weekly (more or less) Photo Quiz!
I think we can all agree that this bird is obviously a Passerine, doesn't look much like a duck or hawk to me... . Alright lets start with the overall shape of the bird, seems to be a fairly thick-billed, short-tailed, and large bodied. The overall coloration of the bird is yellow with a faint red wash on some areas of the bird. The bird is facing us, giving us a pretty limited view, but we can make out enough on it to get a pretty general idea of the bird. It might bring to mind a female oriole, but the short tail and thick (pale) bill pretty safely rules out all orioles. What does seem to fit this bird pretty well is the Piranga (Tanager) family. Noting that it was taken in Georgia, we can safely rule this down to Scarlet or Summer. Some times these two can be a little tricky, but if we take it step by step, we can easily ID them. Let's start at the bill, as stated before, this is a large and thick bill, which definitely points more towards Summer, but the bill isn't all conclusive. Lets move down to the belly, we can see that there are is a red wash over the breast, this would be pretty rare to see that on a Scarlet, so another point for Summer. Now, the undertail coverts, looks pretty "orangey", yet another point towards Summer, as Scarlet usually has a pretty bright yellow undertail covert. All this being said, we can conclude that this is a female Summer Tanager.
This female Summer Tanager was photographed in my front yard (Georgia) in May.
Incorrect Guesses:
Baltimore Oriole
Congratulations to:
Bird man of Texas
joshc
tim.birdboy
nancy
MombyToes
Hope you all are still enjoying this, next one coming soon!
featherbrain Try out my photo quiz!Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD! "Walk softly and carry a big scope!"
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