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RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH!

The 37th spot on the chest, as counted on an inward spiral from the base of the bird's right lateral throat stripe, indicates that.... 😜 The blackness of the lateral throat stripes points to Hermit and Gray-cheeked, while the apparent lack of a contrasting gray cheek and that the head is warm-colored, even taking into account the ruddiness of the exposure, should rule out the latter.

Another recent favorite is a couple of turkeys on the wing, Carson National Forest

Cooper's Hawk

Eastern Bluebird.

That's rather speciesist. Do we know that it wasn't adopted? Who among us is to say that Nature outweighs Nuture? Perhaps it identifies as Song. This is the 21st century; we should be past our outdated Eurocentric expectations of behavior based solely on to whom one is born, or the physical characteristics we are born with! We should be able to appreciate the bird as it perceives itself!! Or some such warm fuzzy trash...

Great Blue Heron by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

Osprey

Both of its parents were Lincoln's Sparrows. 😎

1 -- Mallard x Mottled probably; American Black is really unlikely relative to Mottled 2 -- Probably ditto, given the strong head pattern (Mottled should have a weak head pattern and a buffier head) 3 -- Domestic Mallard

Maybe they do this all the time and I just now realized but yesterday evening I was followed by a Phoebe! I was walking threw some tall grass and stirring up lots of bugs and this one Phoebe kept chasing some bug I disrupted. I find it strange I have never noticed this, I guess I'm so used to phoebes being every where I never realized that one might be following me.

I have been going up along the Rio Grande River north of Pilar, NM for about a year and this was the first time I have seen Osprey there. One was having trout for brunch

You're absolutely correct. Awesome bird.

Four rare bird in the last two days! https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=1900&eyr=2020&bmo=1&emo=12&r=US-TX-363&spp=yerwar,clcspa,fiespa,chispa Chipping Sparrow Clay-colored Sparrow Yellow-rumped Warbler Field Sparrow

Surfbird

Continuing Common Gallinule at Oceano Campground, Oceano, CA

Lincoln's

White Eyed Vireo

Finally, a Warbler that was a poser! Magnolia Warbler by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr Magnolia Warbler by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

Not the best picture, but I was very surprised that I saw one flying! 😮 😄

Juvenile Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Brown throat and chest, cinnamon wing bars.

I'll throw my hat in the ring. https://ebird.org/checklist/S74200447 The morning forecast was "patchy" fog in spots. When we reached our destination, the patchy fog turned into thicker than pea soup. We could have only seen a bird only if it pecked at our feet. As a result, we headed inland until the sun could burn off the fog. The location is a small park and wildlife preserve by a tidal river. Occasionally, there are surprises there, such as a river otter, a deer, or mixed in with the mallards some other species of duck. This day, I was fortunate enough to see three belted kingfishers flying about. Three osprey still hanging around; one diving in the water and catching a small fish. P.s. Reading the previous postings with the high number of species observed are very fortunate.

Stop rolling you eyes at me!

Continuing rare Clay-colored Sparrows.

Chipping; the upper-tail covs are gray

@Katelyn Davis I think this one will remain unidentified. It looks like no one knows. Sorry, sometimes birding is like that.

That was my thoughts as well that is why I reported them as Sparrow Sp.

Immature White-crowned.

Wait for more opinions 🙂

Looks like a LeConte's to me. Nice bird.

Appears to be a Myrtle Yellow-rumped with the white throat wrapping around the auriculars.

I'll confirm akandula's IDs. The consistent overall streaking helps separate siskins from similar finches, and bit of the yellow edging is visible on the wings. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pine_Siskin/ https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-rumped_Warbler and look for the Myrtle sub-species.

Blackburnian Warbler...Lifer and rare in Maricopa County, AZ

One will follow our llamas some times. They are one of my favorite birds, which is convenient because they nest on my house every year. Four pairs nested on our house this year. And when they all have two or three broods it adds up to a lot of Phoebes!

These are my thoughts as well. All though at first I also missed the last Pintail.

Wow, I missed those last two pintails. Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut until you guys arrive 😂

This is an oxymoron. The so-called "eclipse" plumage -- better termed alternate plumage -- is worn in summer, thus ducks in their first year of life do not wear the plumage. The bird's red eye identifies it as a male. That it doesn't look like this suggests that it is a first-year bird. The second photo has a Wood Duck and two Blue-winged Teal (note the pale areas in front of the eyes, the low-slung swimming look of all members of genus Spatula, and the wide bills so different from that of Green-winged Teal) The third pic shows two immature male Wood Ducks.

My top checklist is - wait for it - 44! Real impressive (not). I did get a lifer on that day, though: Black-throated Gray Warbler. https://ebird.org/checklist/S70487441

MN, 9-28-20 Immature Red-tailed Hawk - on the roof :

A big difference between Cooper’s and Sharpies is size. Cooper’s hawks are significantly larger than Sharpies. Cooper’s are about the size of a crow, while Sharpies are about the size of a Blue Jay. However, the females of both species are larger than the males. So a male Cooper’s can be similar in size to a female Sharpie. Size is usually a good indicator, but can’t always be solely relied on. A second difference that I use frequently is wing shape. Cooper’s usually hold their wings out straight, while Sharpies’ wings are more curved and pushed forward. This can make it seem like a Cooper’s hawk’s head sticks out more than a Sharpie’s head. This is best explained with pictures: Cooper’s Hawk: Sharp-Shinned Hawk: (I took these straight out of my bird guide) Lastly, there are differences in the tails. Cooper’s hawks have longer tails relative to their body than Sharpies. Cooper tails appear rounded due to their outer feathers being shorter than their inner feathers. Sharp-shinned tails are more squared and sometimes notched. Many of these characteristics are variable and can be inconsistent, so it’s never a bad idea to double check here! I personally am rarely confident identifying these birds. There are many other ways to identify these hawks, but they are often hard to make out in the field. For these, I would recommend doing a Google search for ‘Cooper’s hawk vs. Sharp-Shinned hawk’ as there are many articles online about how to tell the two apart. Anyone else, please let me know if I missed anything or said something incorrect. Feel free to add on any information you think is important. I’m probably not qualified enough to be talking about this subject 😅 Sources: National Geographic: Complete Birds of North America https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/difference-sharp-shinned-hawk-vs-coopers-hawK (I’m sure there’s better articles for this so do some digging) With all this info, do you have a guess on which hawk this is? It will be a test for you as well as a test for me to see how good my information is, lol.

Magnolia warbler on goldenrod

Landing gear down, flaps up....

There are three subspecies of Merlin that breed in the New World: 1) nominate columbarius, colloquially called Taiga Merlin, as much or most of its breeding range is in taiga -- fairly dark-backed with complete or nearly so white tail bands https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/132910061#_ga=2.111795078.30951479.1599863273-1184313056.1549327880 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/185558461#_ga=2.111795078.30951479.1599863273-1184313056.1549327880 2) richardsonii, Prairie Merlin, primarily breeding on the... wait for it... prairies of north-central US and south-central Canada -- relatively pale-backed with complete white tail bands https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/123086771#_ga=2.38894753.30951479.1599863273-1184313056.1549327880 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/132872311#_ga=2.38894753.30951479.1599863273-1184313056.1549327880 3) suckleyi, Black Merlin, breeding in Pacific NW -- very dark both above and below, with incomplete tail bands, often just a row of a couple spots https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/204456721#_ga=2.177511591.30951479.1599863273-1184313056.1549327880 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/119496371#_ga=2.114416517.30951479.1599863273-1184313056.1549327880

~Only~ 74? The checklist I did today had 6!

You know you have a birder in training when you are out in the driveway with your 2 year old and hear a mourning dove call somewhere off in the distance - 'Owl Daddy, owl ! Look owl please' 😁

Muted swan taking off.