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8-1-18 MN : I laughed so hard... he caught the fish though.

Caspian Tern, Chambers Bay, Tacoma, WA by Christopher Clark, on Flickr

Rufus Hummingbird

Haha this I can agree to ^ That's how I learned to be the birder I am today... Spending a lot of time looking through different paper field guides. Its amazing what you can learn by going that route! Of course, apps and researching birds online does have its perks too.

At the risk of annoying the administrators, I'll put in a plug for an old-fashioned paper field guide -- they're easier to simply sit and leaf through, even when you're not trying to ID a bird. That makes them very useful learning tools.

The beak appears to be completely black and the brownish color looks better for an Eastern Phoebe to me. The cinnamon wingbars are indicative of a youngster. Eastern Wood-Pewees have longer primary projection and both Wood-Pewees and Traill's are usually a more green/gray color and have orange lower mandibles.

Young Gray Catbird.

In South Central Oklahoma this is a large bird that does not frequent my yard. It landed in the top of a tree on the edge of my pasture this morning. The quality is not great but it was a very long shot. Could you tell me what it is? Thanks

Agreed. Nice bird, and the quality looks good to me.

This is a Mississippi Kite. It's a small, aerial raptor. Their migration period starts quite soon, which means he's done with nesting and just wandering around enjoying himself for a while.

😱 I can't plan that far ahead, sorry.........

Think of them the same way you would barnyard chickens, ducks, or geese.

The word domestic means simply that a population has been changed through human selective breeding -- even plants can be domesticated. (Just about all of our food crops are.) There are plenty of populations of domestic animals living in the wild -- Rock Pigeons and wild Mustangs are both examples here in the US. (The term feral is often used to refer to domestic species living in the wild.) In this case, though, I'm not aware of any established populations of guineafowl in New York -- the habitat really doesn't fit. So it's almost certainly an escape.

Yep!

The tail looks quite short. Looks like a Buteo to me -- if I had to make a wild guess, maybe Broad-winged based on what appears to be 4 fingers. But that's perhaps 51%.

No, more like "Who tries to take photos on a dark cloudy afternoon with the minimal amount of light BEHIND the bird?" Or maybe "Who goes birding with an 80% chance of rain?" Tail looks narrow; Cooper's?

Not to snap at the hand that feeds us, but an indentification app and a field guide are different tools. An ID app is reactive, a tool you reach for when you've seen a bird and learn it's a Great Blue Heron. It's great for reproducing calls and songs, something no field guide can do. A field guide can serve as an ID tool but it's also proactive, something you can browse through to learn that cranes aren't herons before you see either of them. It's much easier to get started with a targeted guide for your state or area than an app often features birds found over half a continent or more, easier to interpret the app's results and probabilities. And frankly, it's often easier read a full-sized guide than a 4" or 5" screen. Nobody ever suggested, "You're looking for binos? You should get a camera!". Like a guide and an app, they're both useful tools but they aren't interchangeable and they aren't mutually exclusive. It's easy to use and enjoy both.

I should work on my Chiri trip report... Speaking of which, registration for summer 2020 (yes, not a typo, 2020), opens in mid-October. I highly recommend the camp, lotsa good birds (I had around 30 lifers and I'm from the West Coast).

Laughing Gull Chasing Parasitic Jaeger by Greg Miller, on Flickr American Bittern by Greg Miller, on Flickr Rough-legged Hawk - Light Morph by Greg Miller, on Flickr

I appreciate you talking the time to send this. The more I look at that first picture the more I see the hybrid features, in particular the slope in the bill. Thanks for the follow up.

Agreed

Looks like a Solitary Sandpiper.

Oh, and an Acadian Flycatcher would also be greener with an orange lower mandible plus a white eyering.

I'm with @MerMaeve I get them like this and can sometimes watch them slowly get a bit more red before they bug out.

Black-crowned Night-Heron w/ Catch of the Day (#3 of 3) Black-crowned Night-Heron by Johnny, on Flickr

Trumpeter Swan after a bath :

1) Juvenile sparrow, probably Song 2) Green Heron

Hello, can you please confirm that this bird is a Chipping Sparrow? Taken in Connecticut. Thank you.

Thanks, I've been seeing tons of young Canada geese over the last two months and none of them have had plumage remotely like these three! All going from a fuzzy brownish and then a pale imitation of adult plumage, but still distinct chin straps, etc. Like these youngsters I monitored. By the time they are as big as the parents their Canada plumage is quite distinct. 2018-04-14 mall geese by scall0way, on Flickr 2018-06-02 JPHall geese by scall0way, on Flickr 2019-06-16 JP Hall geese by scall0way, on Flickr

If you learn the songs and calls I think you'll find that they're more common than you realized. They're skulkers, usually much easier to hear than to see.

Seen today on Bastian Island just south of Empire Louisiana. 2 individuals 1. Possible young? 2.

I took this photo in Laurel, MD this past weekend. I would appreciate some help with an ID. Thanks in advance.

A few days old, but in my defense I just got back from my trip 😛 Black Skimmer with chicks, Navarre, FL by Christopher Clark, on Flickr

I think this is a baby Gray Catbird.

Scaly-breasted Mannikins are indeed not native to California, but they appear to have established themselves there. (They've been in Hawaii for quite a while now...) They are in the family Estrildidae, with the waxbills. "Finch" is an imprecise term, often used to refer to any little bird with a seed-eater's bill, but most of our finches are in the family Fringillidae. Grosbeak is another term without a taxonomic meaning -- just here in the US, Evening and Pine Grosbeaks are in the Fringillidae, whereas Rose-breasted, Black-headed, and Yellow are in the Cardinalidae.

Scaly-breasted Munia?

On these hot days you gotta use what ever shade you can grow!

Looks like a Red-winged Blackbird.

Agreed. I would vote to name it something besides reputation. How about Feathers?

Small portion of a flock of scaup seen this spring in Barataria bay