Liam

RIP This thread 😅 Sorry y'all. I moved to Corpus Christi to start a new job and haven't had much free time to post! Not sure if that will change, but I'm kinda thinking of bringing back this thread. Starting with dowitchers...

The more upright one is an adult female Mountain Bluebird. The other one (alone in the second picture) is a juvenile. Note the darker coloration, especially on the flanks, and the shorter bill with a yellow gape flange.

I agree. Very distinct with that harlequin pattern on the face, though it is rather obscured from this angle.

The fish is a rainbow trout

Note the long bill and dense streaking on the chest and flanks - this is a female Red-winged Blackbird. Song Sparrow have shorter, more conical bills and much sparser streaking on the chest and flanks (at least in the east).

Hey, sorry for the late response, I have been busy with life. I did my master's on habitat preferences of Bachman's Sparrow at the western extent of its range (which theoretically includes Arkansas!). Where you'll find them will be in shortleaf pine stands with mature trees that are spread apart, enabling sunlight to reach the forest floor. This promotes the growth of herbaceous plants like grasses and forbs. Bachman's Sparrow builds its nest entirely out of grass, so a prominent ground layer of grass is necessary for their occupancy. If you're searching for BACS habitat, look for relatively open mature pine stands with lots of grass in the understory. Too much woody vegetation will shade out the grass, so you don't want to look in stands that have a lot of early succession (e.g., sweetgum, yaupon saplings). They are very responsive to playback (but obviously don't overdo it) and will sing from January to September. Peak singing season is March-July. They'll sing any time of day, but are most active during the early and mid-morning hours.

Sorry y'all! The quiz with non-birds was a joke FYI! I've been super busy moving (not done yet!). And now I'm back in Georgia to see my grandfather, who is really sick.

You'd get zero points for all of these!!

This next quiz will include fish, snakes, and skippers! Oh and damselflies!

But why? Not disagreeing, just wondering what you're basing it off of.

Absolutely!

Thanks to those of you who participated! This week's answers are: 1) Greater Pewee - from Cochise County, AZ in May 2017 2) Greater Pewee - from Harris County, TX in October 2021 3) Western Wood-Pewee from Union County, OR in July 2016 Greater Pewee can be very similar to Wood-Pewees, but have a more peaked or crested crown seen in photos 1 and 2. They also have less contrasting wingbars. In photo 2 we see that the crown is not peaked or crested, so we can assume it is a Wood-Pewee. Eastern and Western are not really distinguishable by plumage, to my knowledge, so based on my hint for location, Western is a good guess. Pewees can be differentiated from Empidonax spp. by their darker plumage (kinda smoky gray), very long primaries, and smudges on the undertail coverts (to a lesser extent on Greater). Here's the scoreboard! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O-lJlp8rr2VAK3CFkMpCkMB-ayTbV7Us/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104899496886098762905&rtpof=true&sd=true

I now have 5 answers 🙂

I agree. It's got that owl-shaped face which you can see surprisingly well from this angle.