GAME: name that bird!

[Soukous]

Ha ha. I thought you were seeking help with the id. 😂

[Soukous]

How about a Long-tailed Duck in transitional plumage

[inyathi]

@Soukous 

 

No not a long-tailed duck

 

16 hours ago, Soukous said:

Ha ha. I thought you were seeking help with the id. 😂

 

No help required with the id at my end, some helpful person called M. Hulme had painted a picture of it,  which some other helpful people had stuck on a wooden signboard, along with some information and a map, as it was with lots of other ducks, I took a photo of this, to be sure I could identify the bird later, so for once I'm 100% sure , often times after trips, particularly with shots that aren't that great, I find myself having to consult my checklist and guidebooks to id a bird, because, obviously I can't remember every bird I photograph, occasionally it takes a little while, because I never upload photos of birds or mammals, unless I'm confident I have a positive id, so I can label all of my online shots, I always try to id any reptiles, amphibians, insects, plants etc as well, but I will upload shots of them without an id, if I can't find one.   

 

I checked the original rules and they don't specify that the bird has to be in the wild, so as should now be obvious, this bird is captive and it resides at the HQ of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire in the UK, but that doesn't really help much. I need to offer more clues, I'll say that the surname of this bird, so to speak, is duck, well no surprises there, its first name is the name of a place.That doesn't help a lot, if you have no idea at all where that place might be, so I will just say at this point that it lives somewhere, I've never visited, that is over a thousand miles away from where I took the photo, it's pretty remote and it shares this home with just 19 other surviving bird species. That should at least give some hints, to get you or anyone else playing, started on trying to establish what sort of location you are looking for, I'll then offer some more helpful clues later.

 

  

[TonyQ]

Laysan Duck from Hawaii (Mentioning Slimbridge was very helpful!)

Edited May 13, 2020 by TonyQ

[inyathi]

Yes, well done, I'd hoped that my last clues would have suggested an island or islands, so I was then going to offer another nice helpful clue and say that the territory that this bird comes from has the Union Jack on its flag, on the assumption, that not everyone would know that the state flag of Hawaii has the Union Jack on it, and that might have had some of you looking at various British Overseas Territories or islands belonging to NZ, instead of one of the Hawaiian islands.

 

It states on Wikipedia that the Laysan duck is the world's rarest duck, but that information is out of date, I think it might have been, until the Madagascar pochard was rediscovered in 2006.

 

Hope for the Madagascar pochard the world’s rarest duck

 

Ahead of my recent Zambian safari, I took a trip over to Slimbridge, as I wanted to buy a new pair of binoculars from the In Focus shop there, as my old pair don't do close focus, for birding not being able to focus on birds when they're really close, gets to be a bore after a while, the shop is great as it has a big window looking out over ponds full of ducks and other birds.      

 

The Laysan duck (Anas laysanensis) sometimes called the Laysan teal is endemic to the islands of Hawaii, originally it was likely found on all or almost all of the islands, but by the 20th century it was entirely confined to Laysan, it's extinction from all of the other islands occurred following the arrival of the first people, I would think likely primarily as a consequence of the introduction of the Polynesian or Pacific rat, that was carried all around the Pacific by Polynesian people as a food source. Sadly in more recent times the island of Laysan, was devastated by the introduction of rabbits, this caused the extinction of 29 plant species and three birds, the Laysan rail, the Laysan honeyeater and the millerbird, and very nearly the Laysan duck, conservationists eventually stepped in and eradicated the rabbits. In 1912 there were just 12 ducks left, since they disposed of the rabbits, the duck population on Laysan has recovered and they've now translocated ducks to Midway and Kure atolls. I imagine they can't attempt a reintroduction to any of the bigger islands yet, because there must be too many introduced predators, I don't know what the most up to date population figure is, I would think it should be around a 1,000 by now. The population restored to Midway suffered a big set back, when large numbers died from avian botulism.

 

    

 

 

  @TonyQ Your turn.

Edited May 14, 2020 by inyathi

[TonyQ]

Thank you @inyathi for that very useful information.

I think mine might be easy - but we will see. As a clue - not taken in the UK.

[xelas]

Great Currasow (maybe taken in Costa Rica?).

[pedro maia]

Or Bare-faced curassow, in the Pantanal.

Edited May 14, 2020 by pedro maia

[TonyQ]

@pedro maia  well done - you are correct

 

Taken at Barranco Alto in the Southern Pantanal

 

over to your @pedro maia

[pedro maia]

@TonyQ, I have pictures taken in the Araras Lodge, that´s why I was able to guess.

 

This picture was taken yesterday so it´s from Portugal:

 

[inyathi]

@pedro maia Common kestrel?

[pedro maia]

25 minutes ago, inyathi said:

@pedro maia Common kestrel?

 

No, sorry.

[inyathi]

@pedro maia Quite tricky with those rather worn tail feathers, I'll go with my other idea and say lesser kestrel and if that's wrong as well, I'll leave it to someone else to have a go.

[pedro maia]

18 minutes ago, inyathi said:

@pedro maia Quite tricky with those rather worn tail feathers, I'll go with my other idea and say lesser kestrel and if that's wrong as well, I'll leave it to someone else to have a go.

 

It´s not a kestrel (and sorry if the picture isn´t very good.

[inyathi]

@pedro maia The pictures fine for the purposes of this game, that wasn't a complaint it was just an observation , I'll look at some other options, while I wait to see who else is going to have a go. 

[inyathi]

@pedro maia Since no one else has had a go, I'll offer another guess and say short-toed eagle.

[Soukous]

Looking at the colour of the feet I'll suggest Red-footed Falcon, but the tail plumage does not look right.... and if I'd looked at the distribution I'd have seen that it is highly unlikely to be a Red-footed Falcon.

 

So I'll go for Bonelli's Eagle instead.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Soukous

[pedro maia]

On 5/21/2020 at 6:29 PM, inyathi said:

@pedro maia Since no one else has had a go, I'll offer another guess and say short-toed eagle.

 

That day I saw a short-toed eagle but it isn’t this one.

[pedro maia]

1 hour ago, Soukous said:

Looking at the colour of the feet I'll suggest Red-footed Falcon, but the tail plumage does not look right.... and if I'd looked at the distribution I'd have seen that it is highly unlikely to be a Red-footed Falcon.

 

So I'll go for Bonelli's Eagle instead.

 

I don’t think red-footed falcon occurs in Portugal and it’s not a bonelli’s.

[Soukous]

Sparrowhawk?

[pedro maia]

6 minutes ago, Soukous said:

Sparrowhawk?

 

Nope.

[pedro maia]

One more part:

 

[Soukous]

3 minutes ago, pedro maia said:

 

Nope.

[offshorebirder]

I am glad to see @Game Warden revived this game.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by offshorebirder

[offshorebirder]

@pedro maia - is it a Booted Eagle?