lonestranger

I'm just going to keep playing. Remember, there's no rules, not even about playing hands in sequence. 😉 A pair of feeding finches beats my earlier pair of goldfinches.

A pair of birds with wings darker than their body beats a pair of splashing birds. 3S0A8605 by Glen Mercer, on Flickr

A pair of splashing birds beats a pair of goldfinches.

I'll start with a pair of American Goldfinches.

Some of you may remember the bird poker game we had years, and years, ago. Well, THIS IS NOTHING LIKE THAT GAME!. The old game had rules requiring certain specifics be met for each poker hand played, this game has no rules, except the ones you set for yourself. The idea is to post photos of birds that you can relate to a poker hand and then post a better hand with your next photo. While we'll follow the standard poker hands(linked below), how we make up those poker hands and what order they're played in is up to the individual. As an example, someone could claim that a pair of goldfinches has a higher ranking than a pair of hawks, or maybe a pair of birds with black eyes has a higher ranking than a pair of birds with pink feet, or maybe three birds with white wingbars outranks three painted buntings, or maybe four house sparrows out rank four ivory-billed woodpeckers, you decide how to rank your own birds. One pair, two pair, three a kind, etc., are all pretty straightforward, you'll have to get creative with what makes a straight and a royal straight though. Maybe five black-eyed birds for the suit, and different leg lengths assigned to the A,K,Q,J,10 ranking, or maybe five birds ranked in order by the amount of a similar colour they share. It doesn't matter, post photos that you can twist into a poker hand, use your imagination and be creative, there are no rules except to have fun. Disclaimer: For entertainment purposes only. This is not a gambling site. Poker hand rankings: https://images.app.goo.gl/fFoSqzpfzG5jUUW57

Red-breasted Nuthatch trying to chase a Downy Woodpecker off the empty feeder. 3S0A9633 by Glen Mercer, on Flickr

A couple of Ruby-throated hummingbird pics from the weekend. 3S0A9360 by Glen Mercer, on Flickr 3S0A9288 by Glen Mercer, on Flickr

Still trying to get a feel for my new gear but enjoying every mistake I make with it.

The way the edge of the shell is folded inward in such a straight line makes me think a predator opened it from the outside. Perhaps a raccoon biting off the top of the egg so it could drink/eat from a cup sort of thing. Just a wild guess that is pure speculation with no personal experience to support such speculation. Aren't imaginations wonderful?

I could be wrong here, but I always considered Song sparrows to be streaky/striped underneath. Does the bird in question look like this? https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Song_Sparrow/id BTW, Welcome to Whatbird @Joani Gammill.

Hummingbird moth

Perhaps posting the original photo on a third party website like flickr, imjur, etc., will allow others to zoom in for a little better view. Uploads directly to Whatbird get compressed and don't show as much detail as photo sharing websites do. That MIGHT help determine if the potential tail spots have the potential to determine the ID.

I see the same list twice, @lonesome55dove, the only difference I see is the order. One shows the first bird first, the other shows the last bird first. Both lists show birds already posted.

Just a thought for those involved in the listing process, I wonder if a reverse list would be easier to manage, and view. If you start with a list of all included birds(ABA or similar) and remove the birds from the list when they're added here, then instead of seeing a growing list of birds that have already been posted, the participants would see a shrinking list of birds that still need to be added to the list. My thinking is, when you look at a list, you see what's listed...for myself, it'd be easier to see a list of birds that I could safely add to the collection, instead of looking through a list of birds already added. Just my $00.002 worth. And no, that's not a typo... more like an exaggeration of the value of my ideas.

Thank you both. After discovering our similar birthdays last year, @Bird Brain, your's has become one of the easiest birthdays for me to remember.