mikerigney

Oh yes that makes more sense! Thank you!

Turns out my Merlin app was set to the wrong location (facepalm) so the yellow throated wasn't showing up. Once I updated the location this answers became much more obvious! Thank you all for the quick response 🙂

I thought this was an Anna's, because that is what normally is seen in San Diego, but quite obviously has the orange rufous coloring. Taken 12/20/19 in Rancho Bernardo, CA. Thanks, Mike

Hello all! My mom took this amazing picture of a bird that has been tapping at her window yesterday in Tarpon Springs, FL. I tried a Merlin bird ID and nothing came up. Thank you!

Yessss thank you!

Is this a semipalmated sandpiper? Seems like the beak is thicker and shorter than other pics I'm seeing. Man these shorebirds are hard.

Osprey just being generally awesome.

Great blue heron that was absolutely terrorizing a flight of double-crested cormorants today in Tarpon Springs, FL

I hadn't seen that yet, thank you for sharing! I just got back from a walk, will post my best from today after I sort! 🙂

Thank you so much! Wildlife photography has been hobby for a while and it has finally turned me on to birding. I've only just started tracking sightings on eBird and wow, I'm looking forward to the day where I don't have to look up EVERY bird to get a positive ID. Thank you for the great welcome to your community, I'm sure I'll have many more questions soon 🙂

You guys are great, thank you so much! Looking back at Merlin, the first photos of both these show breeding adults, while these are non-breeding, so the colors are much more muted with completely different patterns. I had to flip through a few more photos. Good lesson for me and I definitely appreciate your input!

Hi all, this is my first post. I'm struggling to identify two birds I saw while on a walk this evening in Tarpon Springs, FL (about 40 minutes North of Tampa). I saw them right at dusk, and they were feeding in the sand near a large flock of laughing gulls and black skimmers. There were an assortment of wading birds all together. I have a couple ideas but want to hear what you all think! Sorry the pictures aren't great and I didn't get many - it was getting late and light wasn't good. Thanks!