Jump to content

Bird ID topic. Ask for help with your indentification.


Game Warden

Recommended Posts

Game Warden

This is a general topic for helping with bird identification.

 

Please post your image/s in the replies below, including location and time of year the photo was taken and hopefully you will receive as reply as soon as possible.

 

Thanks, Matt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
Botswanadreams

Please help with the bird ID's.

Both pics are taken in Southeast Alaska, East Pinta Rocks, NW coast of Kupreanof Island in Frederick Sound, July 2022.

 

No 1

P1230162.jpg.cea7a24b29853a50384ea861ed3c15f4.jpg

 

No 2

P1230184.jpg.3d37c8d0208c58f5654109e2c8234c7e.jpg

 

Thanks in advance for taking your time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@BotswanadreamsNot an area of the world that I am that familiar with as yet, but it is somewhere I'm keen to visit, and I have been looking at the birds of this area, I happen to have my Nat Geo Field Guide to the Birds of North America to hand, so I will give it go and suggest for No 1, Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala) and for No2, Surfbird (Aphriza virgata

 

Those would be my best guesses, I'm confident on No2 and I am sure that No1 are turnstones, I'm just not 100% certain that they are Black and not Ruddy, but since I have a friend who knows more about North American shorebirds, than I ever will, I will ask @offshorebirderfor a second opinion. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Botswanadreams

Thanks @inyathi. I don't have a bird book from Northern America. I was looking at avibase for Alaska. Looking through the list with the images I thought the same like you suggested but non of the images fit my poor pics exactly.  So it is very confusing for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Botswanadreams

Me again with a other problem. Alaska has both Black guillemot and Pigeon guillemot. Both looks similar. The description for the Pigeon guillemot says "with a white wing patch broken by a brown-black wedge".

 

No 1

P1229807.jpg.a6bc60224d83c27b9f21c9c2b3ec8903.jpg

 

No 2

P1230194.jpg.84aeedbf5807da6b3ca7e3f3c7937bb4.jpg

 

No. 3

P1230145.jpg.c8ac18399939f9ca65c23d7ffaed0b9d.jpg

 

No 4

P1230160.jpg.c31443c0d1b04228a5a6866ec709e328.jpg

 

So I would say No 1 from Petersburg should be a Black guillemot.

No 2 to 4 are from East Pinta Rocks. With No 2 I'm not sure what it is. No 3 and 4 should be Pigeon guillemots.

 

Please can you birders take a look. Thanks   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

offshorebirder

Thanks for the kind words @inyathi, I enjoy a shorebird ID puzzle.  I am glad @Botswanadreams had some nice coastal birding.

 

The birds in the first photo look like Black Turnstones.   The leftmost bird shows dark legs, not the orangish legs of a Ruddy Turnstone.  And the top right bird shows a dark chin, which Ruddy Turnstones never have - they show white or brown chins depending on the season.   The black on these birds' breast also comes down lower than a Ruddy Turnstone - practically onto their upper belly.  

 

The birds in the second photo look like Surfbirds.  The bright yellow legs eliminate most other medium-sized shorebirds with short+stout bills like Knots and Willets.  The bicolored bill with a dark tip, stout build overall, whitish undertail and flanks with increasingly dense streaking forward towards the breast, brownish wings with reddish highlights contrasting a gray-streaked face, and other factors point towards Surfbirds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

offshorebirder

As far as the Guillemots go @Botswanadreams - I think they are all Pigeon Guillemots.   

 

In terms of their range of occurrence:  Black Guillemots almost never make it that far south and that is a dense breeding area for Pigeon Guillemots.  These range maps from Cornell's All About Birds website illustrate the ranges of these species:

 

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Guillemot/maps-range

 

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pigeon_Guillemot/maps-range

 

In terms of identification clues, the last two photos show the classic dark bar extending into the white wing patch.   In the first and second photos, I think the upward-jutting dark bar might be obscured by black body feathers (on the resting bird) that are ruffled up over the wing patch.   

 

This Pigeon Guillemot photo in the Cornell gallery looks like the bird in your first and second photos:  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pigeon_Guillemot/photo-gallery/164897081

Edited by offshorebirder
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Botswanadreams

@offshorebirder thank you so much. Your answer is like a big lessen for me what is all necessary to look up to identify a bird.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
ravipatel888

Hey everyone - I've been stumped by this raptor and need some help ID'ing it.

Spotted in Nairobi National Park in November.

 

 

20191019-NNP188-1.jpg

20191019-NNP197-1.jpg

20191019-NNP200-1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Preparing to be shot down but......

I would guess a Greater Spotted Eagle, probably immature moulting to adult.

Two things on this, yellow legs and round not oval nostril (and I had to look that bit up!)

Against this is upper wing colouring a bit too white possibly.

Southern end of the non-breeding range according to my book.

Edited by AndrewB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My reason for not Verreaux's is that the legs aren't booted and too much white on the upper wings.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ravipatel888

 

@AndrewB I agree that the legs should be fully booted, and there is more leg visible in that first shot, than I would expect to see, but everything else says to me, that this is definitely a Verreaux's, given the bit of white on the head, I would suggest that it is still a young bird. I would expect a Great Spotted Eagle to be much more brown, having said that I have seen photos online of very dark almost black looking Great Spotteds, but I can still see that they are just very dark brown, this bird isn't, it's more what I'd call charcoal, the wing pattern to me looks like Verreaux's as does the white on the back, I think there is much more white on the upper wings, than you would expect, probably because it is still a young bird and not in full adult plumage. These things are always a bit tricky, because it's hard to find photos of a young Verreaux's seen from the same angle and the plumage of young eagles can be very variable, so no two will look exactly the same. The photos were taken in November, when it is possible that you could find Great Spotted in Nairobi NP, but I think it's more likely that you would see Verreaux's, as it is a resident breeding bird.

 

That's just my opinion. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well @inyathicommon sense suggests a Verreaux's and probably an immature but it just didn't seem right which is why I went and had a scratch around. When I came to Greater Spotted Eagle I was taken by the description of a round not oval nostril (as well as other bits like bare yellow legs.

This is a shot of the face of @ravipatel888's eagle and then a shot of the face of a Verreaux's Eagle from Wikipedia for comparison.

1468868336_Eaglenostril1-DeNoiseAI-raw.jpg.f044246d0d70ee5ee453425462c15c62.jpg

 

Face of Verreaux's Eagle for comparison. There is quite a difference in nostril shape to be seen. I really wouldn't want to put money on which, or another, Eagle @ravipatel888photographed.

1283859392_Eaglenostril2-DeNoiseAI-raw.jpg.4ed2f3b00f81a8fc98aa4360db5f4b70.jpg

 

And a head shot from the internet of a Greater Spotted Eagle showing the nostril shape.

1997662989_Greaterspottedeagle2-DeNoiseAI-raw.jpg.38e5f129aff2f589f4144ab0db4c0aa8.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@AndrewBYes, but that Great Spotted Eagle you've posted is clearly brown and the bird in @ravipatel888's photos isn't brown and If you look at the nostril in his photo through a magnifying glass, I think you will see that they aren't as different as you think and that it is probably another affect of it being a young bird, the bill is also smaller than in the photo of the adult bird you included, I think the shape of the nostril would likely change slightly as the bill grows  If you look at his first two photos, you can clearly see that the very white underside of the primaries, a Great Spotted Eagle would not have white on the primaries like that. 

 

So I am sticking to my guns, but it is still good to debate these things, as I know I don't always get it right. 

Edited by inyathi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ravipatel888

 

@AndrewBI've had a complete rethink, I now think I am wrong it is not a Verreaux'e Eagle, I was thrown by the white on the back, what I said about the bill is nonsense :lol:, even a young eagle would have a much bigger bill than this bird has, I am now absolutely certain that I know what it actually is, it is a dark morph Augur Buzzard (Buteo augur), I think if if you zoom in enough on the flight shot you can see that the tail is brown and the wing pattern is a much better match than Verreaux's Eagle, an Augur would have that much white on the wing. Of course you were absolutely right, to point out that the legs are not booted and of course on a buzzard they wouldn't be. Here's a photo of a normal Augur Buzzard I took in Arusha NP.

 

 50383665342_11a831c1c4_o.jpg

Augur buzzard, Arusha National Park, Tanzania by inyathi, on Flickr

 

Given the lack of boots and the small bill, I feel slightly silly that I didn't think of Augur Buzzard, but I'd forgotten that there is a dark morph, that doesn't have a white breast and belly and the white on the neck, that you can see in my photo, I think it might still be a young bird and that could account for the white on the back and on the head.

 

There's a photo of the dark Morph on the Tanzanian Birds and Butterflies website

 

Exactly as I said I don't always get it right, probably if you hadn't suggested something else, I would have just stuck with Verreaux's,  I am now 100% certain that Augur Buzzard is correct and that's my final answer :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ravipatel888

Thanks @inyathi, @AndrewB& @Tdgraves- what a lively discussion! My initial feeling was also a Verreaux's Eagle, but I was thrown off by the nostril and yellowish eye ring. It did look similar to the large brown eagles in terms of shape and features, but I didn't look at them in much detail because of the color, so thanks for expanding into that @AndrewB.

@inyathi- after looking through you last post - I'm sure you're correct that its a dark morph Augur Buzzard - thank you all so much!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one @inyathi!!

Totally with you now on dark morph Augur Buzzard.

@ravipatel888even said raptor and not Eagle and i was fixated on Eagles.

Anyway - I found out some new stuff as the shape of nostril had never come into my head in relation to bird id before.

I will now become obsessed with nostril shape!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

I've not previously thought of myself as a birder, but took a trip today to Otmoor RSPB in Oxfordshire (UK) mainly as an opportunity to give my camera an overdue outing and try out a new lens. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, despite not really having a clue what I was looking at most of the time. A friend had recommended the Merlin Bird ID app, so at least I have some confidence in what I heard.

 

One particularly distinctive song was identified by the app as a Cetti's Warbler; at the time I did not know what these look like and I couldn't make out any sign of the bird (which I now understand is quite normal, from the difficulty others report in seeing this bird, despite hearing it loud and clear).

 

A few minutes previous, I had taken a few shots of a small but rotund LBJ which settled briefly on a water-butt. From its diminutive size and the cocked-tail posture I assumed this was a Wren, but have since seen that the Cetti's Warbler shows similar markings and posture.

 

Unfortunately the light was pretty low at this point and it's not the best image, but is there anything here that indicates it clearly as one or the other?

 

OtmoorLBJ-0001-2.jpg.a2fc263fe1df5ce9d412f19a55bb5c7c.jpg

 

Edited by JimS
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's definitely a wren. 😊

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, kittykat23uk said:

It's definitely a wren. 😊

 

Thanks!

 

I had thought about posting this image first, as a real test for identification :)  I'd captured a burst of around 10 frames toward the end of which the LBJ took off. It makes me think of a Golden Snitch from Harry Potter stories.

 

OtmoorLBJ-0001-3.jpg.86d63380bc6a1edff0edcfd77a4b329b.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That may have proved more challenging to id 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Some assistance please.

 

Struggling with three birds. The first two look like Larks or possibly Pippits to me but I am stumped.

All seen near Hoedspruit in the last couple of weeks.

 

Bird 1: 

UB1.jpg.94607793300111075a86283017f540cf.jpg

 

Bird 2:

UB2-1.jpg.1f1f5af72da1a59e2a8818842308255f.jpg

 

UB2-2.jpg.bd4efafcd46806cbfab14bba2616cb39.jpg

 

Bird 3:

UB3.jpg.ee8944cf7cecc640b7ea6f983f035671.jpg

Cistocola of some sort?

 

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 looks like a lark, Sabota at a guess

2 Rattler

3 Juvenile red-backed shrike

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Safaritalk uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By using Safaritalk you agree to our use of cookies. If you wish to refuse the setting of cookies you can change settings on your browser to clear and block cookies. However, by doing so, Safaritalk may not work properly and you may not be able to access all areas. If you are happy to accept cookies and haven't adjusted browser settings to refuse cookies, Safaritalk will issue cookies when you log on to our site. Please also take a moment to read the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy: Terms of Use l Privacy Policy