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Sub Adult Little Blue Heron (calico).. trying something different,using my instagram feed to host pic,I am slowly deleting pics off flickr because of their 1000 pic rule for free accounts. Dont think the quality is there but at least it will stay on the web.

Little Blue Heron

The Scissortail Flycatcher has frequented a tree in my backyard and this is my first of a bird in flight taken this afternoon.

White Ibis, they are currently on eggs, which if they hatch will be the first recorded nesting pair in New Jersey,ever!!

American Kestrel with breakfast early this morning in San Dimas Canyon CA

Oklahoma State Bird

Yellow Crowned Night Heron chicks, about two weeks old

American Kestrels in San Dimas Canyon, California today

The male painted bunting came by today and the weather conditions were perfect to get a pic of him.

Hitchhiker

Black Skimmer skimming at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach CA yesterday.

Green-tailed Towhee by Connor Cochrane, on Flickr

Cooper's Hawk by hbvol50, on Flickr

This has been an exceptional week for birds here in South Central Oklahoma. A Scissortail Flycatcher had been coming to the tree beside our back porch. Today I watched for it and it came to the expected spot. Here is my best pic of the day.

Mississippi kite in Nevada

My Bluebirds and the 3 babies. I’m in love and a bird Grandma. ❤️❤️❤️ Central Florida.

The primary difficulty beginning birders (and some others) have is focusing on a single character to ID an unknown bird. The point of my previous comment was to point out the need to look at the whole bird, not just that the plumage is mostly black or blackish. The white tail bands on Zone-tailed usually provide the easiest differentiator between vultures and Zone-tailed Hawk. In bird ID, simply finding a character or characters that match for a particular species is not enough. Once one has a tentative ID, one then needs to rule out all other possibilities. One does that by looking for other features that can effect that ruling in or ruling out. For those on this forum that don't care to learn, that's fine. I've always said that birding is a great hobby as participants can do what they want with it. If one wants just to enjoy the chickadees and other birds that come to backyard feeders, that's fine. If one wants to see 9000 species of birds, that's fine. If one wants to become the acknowledged expert on the foraging behavior of parulid warblers, that's fine. Birding can encompass those and an infinite number of other personal takes on the birding hobby. Personally, I think that the very best part of birding, is learning new things. And there's always something new to learn, no matter how expert one becomes in the hobby. Thus, I don't understand birders that are not inquisitive, do not care to learn at their every opportunity. I understand that they exist, but it is so far outside my ken, my personal joie de vivre. That's one of the reasons that I'm also "into" dragonflies and butterflies and moths and tiger beetles and robber flies and whatever. Learning, to me, is the single best aspect of being alive.

I believe this is a Redheaded Woodpecker and is my first pic ever of it.

American Avocets

Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Got within 5 feet from a California Quail!

I had about decided that I was not ever going find a Cuckoo, when I had a camera. I hear them consonantly, but I never can find them. Photographic lifer Yellow-billed Cuckoo!

Eastern Phoebe with a mouthful of moth

Field Sparrow by The Bird Nuts, on Flickr

Peregrine It is a robust falcon with a relatively wide wing base. Sooty and Red-footed falcons are slender, narrow-winged falcons. Sooty Falcon Red-footed Falcon Both of those are also ruled out by the extensively pale head visible in the first pic. That pale could suggest the New World arctic-breeding race, tundrius, which generally has a white forehead and usually shows less black on the head. The bird is also obviously medium-gray on the underparts and undersides to the wings, with no suggestion of streaking, therefore it's an adult. The feet look yellow in the first pic, so the bright orange in the second pic is certainly a photographic artifact.

Common Yellowthroat

One of the prettiest birds in the NW - lazuli bunting

Scissortail Flycatcher came back to my backyard this morning. Hope it stays around.

I have baby woodpeckers too. ❤️❤️❤️ So excited. Parents and 2 kids.

I can see you, can you see me? Eastern Screech-Owl at sunset yesterday (ISO 51,200).

Little blue heron chick wing stretching

Patiently w aiting for a snack from the adults

Hummingbird in my backyard.

Eastern Kingbird by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

Yellow Crowned Night heron chicks, about 4 weeks old

Barn Swallow today

My best photo of the day is a sequence of the male Bluebird feeding a grasshopper to a baby in the box. The first is when the male first lands and the baby grabs at the food, and the second is the baby gulping down what he got with the male still holding the remains in his mouth. They really fit together.

Which Sandpiper taken yesterday in Milford Connecticut Sandpiper ...? by Todd Cameron, on Flickr

Just letting folks know that the checklist committee of the American Ornithological Society has published this year's supplement to the "Check-list" and has elevated Mexican Duck to species status. Interestingly, the genetic work that finally got this change accepted by AOS strongly suggests that there are two species of Mottled Ducks. Unfortunately for South Carolinians and Georgians, the introduced birds are a hybrid swarm, so if the Mottled Ducks get split -- and that split was the deepest among Mallard, Am. Black Duck, the Mottleds, and Mexican, those two states may not be able to count either. Unfortunately, they've been invading northeast Florida and could come into contact with Florida Mottled Ducks in the very near future. Since that species/subspecies is already doing so poorly....

They don't look like they're walking. 😎

From yesterday. Great Horned Owl.

Black-crowned Night Heron this morning (don't seem to be as many around this year) and sticking with a slower shutter (1/500 here) for BIF whenever I can.

House Wren by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

An impatient young Downy Woodpecker with dad.

Cedar Waxwing

A pair of Goldfinch came by today. The female stayed and posed for a while.

Yesterday - a Vireo finally came down from the high tree tops - no doubt about which one.