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GAME: name that bird!


Jochen

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5 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

is it a juvenile dusky twinspot by any chance? :P

Did your mum not bring you up not to mock the afflicted??:D

I have not heard back yet but now figure I may have confused Twinspot with Crimsonwing. Dusky something anyway.

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Well isnt Dusky crimsonwing Emmy's favourite bird? I seem to recall we spent a lot of time at the roadside trying to see them... 

 

My other though was Cassin's spinetail, colours seem to fit and i cant see a tail but the bill looks too heavy and of course I wouldn't expect it to be sitting in a bush that's for sure! 

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Can I just recap a bit.

I am assuming that your 'jocular' reference to Dusky whatevers were /are in reference to an earlier offering and not the current one?

It is certainly not the current offering and neither is it Cassin's Spinetail although having just looked in Fanshawe's  can see where the chin/breast is similar. Like you I would not expect to find any Spinetail sitting in a bush.

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You are correct, I was making a lighthearted comment 😉

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8 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

I was making a lighthearted comment 😉

Guessed as much.

So just for you I can confirm that where my subject bird was photoed Cassin's Spinetail has never been recorded.:P

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  • 3 weeks later...

@Galana  can you maybe offer some clues so the game can go on:D

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10 hours ago, mvecht said:

@Galana  can you maybe offer some clues so the game can go on

I was wondering if there was anyone out there it has been so long. I have to say I am surprised at no attempts for this bird as I had held it back as possibly too easy.

It is hard to think of clues that would help. I did try with Jo's Spinetail answer to indicate location.

Here is another angle on the same bird.

1-DSCF5710.JPG.7e9db6479201c835fcb456e53fd8685f.JPG

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Oh dear. I give you full frontal with field marks and no takers. Perhaps you prefer a Hummer in a nest?

Clue. You don't need your Asian Field guides.

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offshorebirder
On 11/23/2020 at 7:01 AM, Galana said:

Anybody??

 

I have said all I have to say on the subject and like others am waiting for a better offering.

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@GalanaThe only problem I have with this offering is I don't know what it is, and it really annoys me because I feel certain I should know what it is, both photos should offer enough to have a stab at an ID, initially I moved away from Africa having not found anything much that looked good, but then I did do any better with Asia or South America, which took me back to Africa, the clue about Cassin's spinetail made me question that a bit, but perhaps you meant a part of Africa outside of its range rather than not in Africa. At the moment I'm still a bit confused, because I might suggest it could be a wattle-eye, but I'm not certain of that or sure which one if doesn't overlap with Cassin's spinetail, so I don't quite know but it's clearly tropical from the foliage I think but it doesn't call to mind any Neotropical species that I can think of, so I think then we are in Africa, basically I'm a bit:unsure:

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14 hours ago, offshorebirder said:

I have said all I have to say on the subject and like others am waiting for a better offering.

We all have different standards and abilities in this game. As frequently said before it is for everyone and hopefully can be fun as well as instructive without dumbing down to a simple child's game of Happy Families of perfect portraits matching an artist's impression in a field guide.

Photo quality depends largely on the type of photography and birding one does.

I don't set forth with a minor expedition for a Hollywood style stage managed production of floodlights, sound, focus pullers and rostrum cameras to obtain a tack sharp well lit portrait of a  well known bird.

My humble efforts are often obtained whilst peering through foliage in thick forest in less than ideal lighting with one hand holding a modest camera whilst struggling to maintain balance on an uneven mud and wet grass slope.

So you get the best there is and must go with that as nothing better is on offer.

 

Edited by Galana
Corrected typo.
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11 hours ago, inyathi said:

but perhaps you meant a part of Africa outside of its range

Yes. What I actually said was."

 

On 11/3/2020 at 3:03 PM, Galana said:

where my subject bird was photoed Cassin's Spinetail has never been recorded.

This does not mean their range may not overlap elsewhere.

I don't know if this is a unique feature but I cannot think of another bird species with a name that contains the names of two perennial plants.

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@Galana 

21 minutes ago, Galana said:

This does not mean their range may not overlap elsewhere.

 

Yes of course, I should have paid closer attention to your wording, :rolleyes: because my initial thought was that you were probably in Uganda, and Cassin's spinetail only has a fairly limited distribution in Uganda, now that that minor confusion over your clue, has been cleared up, I will go with what I was actually thinking, since it neatly fits your latest clue and say is it a chestnut wattle-eye?  

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Not difficult was it?;) I am almost sorry to see this go.

Young confiding female not in Uganda but Kenya's Kakamega Forest.

1800.jpg.8c3654785d050809e4a05a46c3e2ab3d.jpg

Over to you.

Footnote. We also saw the bird in Bwindi this year so am surprised @kittykat23ukdid not get this.

Edited by Galana
added text.
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@Galana I should perhaps apologise for taking so long, when the first photo came up, I thought this doesn't look too easy, so I really don't know at this point I will wait and see if anyone else wants to go for it, before I start to really look into it, and then got distracted by other things, when I finally thought, come on I don't think anyone else is going to get this, I need to take a proper serious look, what eventually drew me to wattle-eyes, was the white-belly, I should have worked that out much sooner. Once I'd ruled out Asia and the Neotropics and focused back on Africa, the only option was really wattle-eyes, nothing else has such a white belly, but it was the second shot that really gave it away as it seems to have almost no tail, which you couldn't tell from the first shot, I should have had the courage of my convictions and suggested chestnut wattle-eye, when I first though of it. This one, is a good illustration of why you really have make sure you have considered females and juveniles, to be sure that you've looked at every option, because even in that last much better shot, the wattles around the eye are not very obvious, that might easily lead one to mistakenly assume that it can't be a wattle-eye. So you're right it wasn't nearly as difficult as I initially thought it was. :)   

 

Okay take a look at this one.

 

13561160084_0cd421c3f5_o.jpg 

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offshorebirder
12 hours ago, Galana said:

So you get the best there is and must go with that as nothing better is on offer.


Then don't be surprised and whine when things stall for days.   My comment was in response to your "Anyone?" plea.

 

Edited by offshorebirder
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There is NO place for rudeness on here Nath. I don't recall any whining. Indeed the photo had run for THREE weeks without a try until @mvechtrequested a clue. Which I provided.

As @inyathihas confirmed it was not a difficult subject so the only surprise from me was that nobody had made an inspired guess let alone got it right.

Just because you could not get it does not mean it was hard to identify and smacks of a dog in the manger attitude to what you feel is acceptable. I cannot help you with that.

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Amazing photo for two reasons. @inyathi

I have never seen such tiny feet on a bird.

And don't tell me that green rectangular shape in the background is a field guide for the bird to helps with its own ID?

 

I sense a fledgling here as I think the plumage is still in quills and no self respecting adult would stick around while folks discussed it's finer points.

The good thing is it is still alive so not a Nechisar (which was much lighter coloured anyway.)

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offshorebirder

@Galana

Nor is there place for passive-aggressive straw man arguments like this comment of yours (nobody suggested any such thing):

"I don't set forth with a minor expedition for a Hollywood style stage managed production of floodlights, sound, focus pullers and rostrum cameras to obtain a tack sharp well lit portrait of a  well known bird."

Edited by offshorebirder
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@inyathiLet us get back to the bird in question.  I have very little experience with nightjars but am going to try Jv Freckled Nightjar.

Cheers.

Elaine

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Gentlemen, please relax.

 

I get the frustration with having to try to identify birds from EBC-quality photos (a term that might only be familiar to us poor demented souls who frequent the Big Year threads, it means "Every Bird Counts). It effectively means that sub-par birders like me really stand no chance with most of the photos shown in this game. In this particular case, identification had more to do with interpreting the word clues and an encyclopedic knowledge of birds the world over and the photo could almost have been omitted completely, but the first post very clearly said that there is only one rule in this game, and turning it into a word game actually probably means one might learn something out of the normal...

 

I also get the frustration of trying to get excellent photos of every bird I see. I delete more than 90% of the ones I take.

 

But if only excellent photos were used here, then the challenge would be gone for most of the active participants, so those of us with lesser skill (and @offshorebirder, I am in no way trying to imply that you are one of them. I am sure you would have instantly snapped a similar word game about a bird you are more familiar with) just have to watch and learn.

 

;)

Edited by Peter Connan
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offshorebirder

I hear what you are saying @Peter Connan It’s unfortunate some of you seem to think I am calling for “excellent” photos when I took pains in previous posts to say “decent” photos or merely not “poor” or downright terrible ones.  

 

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5 hours ago, ElaineAust said:

I have very little experience with nightjars but am going to try Jv Freckled Nightjar.

Good call. I had that on my list of suspects too. IF 'we' are in Africa, there are only a handful that it can be so may I remove one more by suggesting female Standard winged? (jv)

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As to that other matter I don't know why it drew so little interest. Perhaps folks don't want to make sporting guesses so leave it for others but if nobody tries nobody will succeed as the old saw puts it.

It was not an EBC and I submit showed all the field marks that a better photo revealed:-

Go compare;-

1-DSCF5712.JPG.039fae5de5de698918a0fc539dd53094.JPG

1-1801.jpg.9e3187f3310b8790c17419080a817d6c.jpg

One either knew the bird or did not whichever image one had- even the shubbery looks the same and reveals nothing extra. Nobody is forced to play. It's optional but bad humour and rudeness are not. I'm done.:rolleyes:

 

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