Bird ID topic. Ask for help with your indentification.

[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

[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

 

No 2

 

Thanks in advance for taking your time.

[inyathi]

@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. 

[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. 

[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

 

No 2

 

No. 3

 

No 4

 

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   

[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.

[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 October 22, 2022 by offshorebirder

[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.  

[ravipatel888]

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

Spotted in Nairobi National Park in November.

 

 

[AndrewB]

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 April 8, 2023 by AndrewB

[Tdgraves]

Looks like a Verreaux’s eagle to me @ravipatel888

[AndrewB]

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

 

[inyathi]

@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. 

[AndrewB]

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

[inyathi]

@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 April 9, 2023 by inyathi

[inyathi]

@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 , 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.

 

 

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 

[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!!

[AndrewB]

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!

 

[JimS]

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?

 

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by JimS

[kittykat23uk]

It's definitely a wren. 😊

[JimS]

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.

 

[kittykat23uk]

That may have proved more challenging to id 

[Peter Connan]

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: 

 

Bird 2:

 

 

Bird 3:

Cistocola of some sort?

 

Thanks

[Tdgraves]

1 looks like a lark, Sabota at a guess

2 Rattler

3 Juvenile red-backed shrike

 

[Peter Connan]

Thanks @Tdgraves.