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Yellow-headed Blackbird-5347Last by peter spencer, on Flickr

Well, #300 happened last night! We were headed to the barn we shoot archery in and we just turned on to the road that it is on, and drove about 150yds down the road and there was a tire turd in the road then as we got closer it was too upright to be a tire turd. Mom slammed on the brakes as we realized that it wasn't a tire turd.......it was an OWL!! My brain clicked on what it was before Mom's did. It was a Short-eared Owl!!!! It sat in the middle of the road for about a minute, then it flew up on the bank of the road. We took a ton of pictures, then left to go shoot our bows. Driving back Mom said and I quote "We will probably never see that owl again on this road" And there it was same spot on the bank of the road again. It was on my side this time and we got a lot more pictures. I was probably 15 feet away from this SEOW. Amazingly unreal! Only cell photos. Will go out again tonight with our core group and try to find it. This was from when it was in the road 2nd time on the bank This angle it doesn't really look like an owl...raccoon?

I got a half of a magpie! The top and bottom!

White-throated Sparrow by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

I agree with Charlie on this one - I find many of the warblers are much, much more difficult. Kinglets are one of my favourite birds and will usually come really close. This is a shot that I like, just for @birdgurl. A Kinglet with major attitude.

Definitely not Cooper's or Sharp-shinned. But why aren't these (faded?) young Red-shouldereds? The breast patterns seem rather dense and isn't that the translucent part of the primaries I see in the third photo? Are Broad-wings already back in the U.S.?

Digiscauping is hard.

Hi all, Today I saw an unusual bird I have never seen in the area. I would appreciate your thoughts on what it could be. Here is my description: Location and conditions -Suburban area outside Vancouver, BC, Canada -Bird spotted in a Holly tree around 11am -Temperatures well below freezing (-11C) Shape -Like a robin, but fatter, almost like a pregnant robin. -Not as large as a crow, but much bigger than finches and starlings Colour -Brown head and wings -Yellow-orange stripe on head (like the Siberian Accentor) -Yellow-orange throat and belly (like the Black-headed Grosbeak) -Distinctive horizontal stripe of brown across the chest -Possible orange speckles on the wings Behaviour -Hopping from branch to branch in a Holly tree -Eating some berries from the Holly tree I have lived here for almost 30 years and never seen a bird like this. I was unable to find candidates from photos online, but I would recognize it if I saw a photo of one. I will update this post with a photo if I can spot it again and snap a picture. Thanks!

Why not ask odd dark juv Snow Goose?

As they say, coming down is easy; it's the sudden stop that's the problem.

A new year and a nice sunset on the frozen marsh...

Ah, moving to Paraguay could help in that regard.

Also a Pine Warbler. They can be very drab.

That looks better for a Black-bellied Plover due to the thick bill.

Yes, Harris's is ruled out by the long wings (extending to tail tip), as that species, being essentially non-migratory, has relatively short wings. Additionally, the tail's color pattern is reversed fro that of Harris's. However, this could be a dark morph of either Red-tailed or Ferruginous hawks, and that's as precise as I can be, given the photos.

That's actually a leucistic Black-capped Chickadee. Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in a bird or animal. In this example, it's on the head. Nice find!

Photo taken yesterday.

thanks everyone, this makes it my life list sharp-shinned. i've never got good enough pictures to confirm one before.

Trumpeter Swans calling due to the nearby fireworks just after midnight.

Eastern Bluebird

Today, Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch.

Technically, according to the ABA, dead birds cannot be added to your life list. See rule 3D: http://listing.aba.org/aba-recording-rules/

I agree - adorable call duck. :)

I’ll start with my newest sighting

I don't think you can do much better than this for a first post without a photo (other than -11C in Vancouver??). The links for colour characteristics are interesting.

Small head, small bill that juts out sharply, ridiculously long middle toe, tail feathers seem to be all the same length--I'm going for Sharp-shinned. Great shots!

I agree with Trevor -- this individual is too rich brown to be a Great-tailed. Also, in most of the Gulf Coast/Florida, note the dark eyes of Boat-tails of both sexes (Great-tails would have pale eyes). Great-tails do not occur in Florida, so this information is only useful in overlap areas like Louisiana and Texas.

Jack -- I validated that report in 2017, primarily on the strength of the bird depicted in the 2nd photo. That bird is classic Tav, with its almost roman-nose look and rounded crown shape. Unfortunately, not all Tavs present that appearance. I am suspicious of reported Tavs that show too concave of a bill profile, as it has been suggested that Tavs and Richies are mixing in Alaska (?). The bird in the last photo (with the Lesser Canada) is, in my mind, questionable as to parentage. The crown shape seems intermediate between Tav and Richy, and the bill shape is a bit better for Richy. Otherwise, I'm fairly comfortable with the rest being Tavs, with the caveat that subspecies ID is fraught with peril, particularly in Cackling Goose, and even more particularly in the interstices in the Tav-Richy duo.

I'm not climbing any tree. I'm 70 years old. I might make it up but coming down would be a problem. I'm pretty much going with Coopers. Thanks for the help.

The gull is certainly not an adult and also certainly not a first-cycle bird. After that, though, things get a wee bit tricky. There is extreme individual variation in the rate at which large gulls' plumage and soft-part coloration progress, and plumage progression does not necessarily match soft-part coloration progression. While the bird might be in its second plumage cycle, it might also be in its third. Given the relatively extensive amount of gray mantle plumage (see cropped and darkened photo), it's either an advanced 2nd-cycle in plumage or a retarded 3rd-cycle in bill pattern. Without more and better photos, I wouldn't want to be too sure about the bird's age.

The odd bird out is, indeed, an immature Glaucous-winged. I'd go with a Cook Inlet Gull (Herring x Glaucous-winged) for the star of the show. 1) The underside of the wingtip is too pale for a pure Herring 2)The bird is too big with a too-big bill that is not all or virtually all black for Thayer's ["Iceland Gull (Thayer's)" in eBird parlance] 3) The tail is too dark and too patterned for a pure Glaucous-winged. See here, somewhere, for a similar bird or two.

It is a Red-winged Blackbird, a female or juvenile. Note the large, pointed bill, the dense dark streaking, and the small head in proportion to the body.

I’ve got 346 so far still got a few days to go😉

Agree with Herring, note the dark outer primaries with pale inner primary "window", dark secondaries, stout bill.

The second bird is a 1st year Northern Harrier. Note the streaking only goes to its chest, and it has white on its face.

In photos 1 and 2 the large pale gull is a Glaucous-winged Gull. All other gulls in these photos are Western Gull. Photo 3 is either a Glaucous-winged Gull or a Glaucous-winged x Western Gull. Photo 4 and 5 are a Glaucous-winged hybrid, looking like Glaucous-winged x Herring Gull to me. Photo 6 is a Western Gull.

Common Goldeneye Barrow’s Goldeneye From what I can tell, Commons seem to have a higher-pitched wing sound — maybe a Common Goldeneye is indeed your mystery bird.

Hahaha! Never saw that coming! 😂

Post pictures of birds fighting.

Agreed

I believe those three birds are all domestic-type Mallards.