lonestranger

Looking forward to reading your trip report about your birding, since technically it's not a birding trip report without a report about birding. Good luck with your turtle ID.

I won't speculate on your flycatcher ID, I have a hard enough time with local birds never mind different species from different ranges, but I will speculate on the playback of the Brown-Crested Flycatcher sounds. I speculate, and I am no authority on bird calls, but I speculate that ANY bird might respond to a playback recording if they feel the bird they think they are hearing appears as a threat to their nesting territory. If an ash-throated flycatcher heard a brown-crested flycatcher getting comfortable in it's territory, it might try to discourage the brown-crested flycatcher from nesting in the same area and come looking for the source of the intruding sounds. Again, I am only speculating but I could see birds responding to other bird calls for territorial reasons.

Welcome to Whatbird, Jodi Nielson. I saw a few of your photos in another thread but this particular photo isn't loading for me. Just thought I'd let you know.

Z formation of Osprey, seldom seen occurrence, happens only in the Virtual Park of the Internet.

House wren

Ruby-throated hummingbird.

Thanks for pointing out the continental, and ABA, differences that I never considered IvoryBillHope. Perhaps to avoid/lessen confusion in the future, the name of this forum could be changed to something like, Birds Outside North America's ABA Area, and the main ID forum changed to North American Birds Within the ABA Area. I'm not sure if there is enough of an issue for @Administrator to consider these changes though, especially when there's already so many other changes being asked for by the members.

Isn't Costa Rica in Central America? That would explain why people are asking for Costa Rica IDs here in the Outside North America forum.

I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to manually focus a point and shoot camera, I haven't been able to manually focus successfully on ANY of the point and shoot cameras I have/had. Not only is it incredibly slow, I've never been able to get it accurate enough to produce a decent image. Manual exposure is a lot more challenging with point and shoot cameras too, while it can be done on P&S cameras, the controls are much easy to access and adjust on DSLRs than a P&S. Just saying.

MJ's seven year old granddaughter gave this to MJ today for her birthday tomorrow. Talented young girl that knows how much MJ enjoys the birds, which put a big birthday smile on her face.

To my eyes, green herons always seem more blue than green but there is usually a greenish tint to the blue I see.

I just want to point out, as a former moderator on a different chat forum, the mods usually have very little control/input, if any, over the construction or function of the website. Aveschapines does a GREAT job of moderating. I am not sure if she has the IT skills to change the forum setup, I am not sure if she is allowed access to the programming itself to make any changes, and I am not sure if she has anymore influence with Admin than us members do in persuading changes.. I am quite sure though that the crashes, and any faults we find in the current layout of the forums, should not be be dumped on her shoulders. Moderating is a thankless job, and as frustrated as we may be with the current function and layout of the website, Aveschapines deserves our thanks for her efforts, not our criticism.

Vireo, blue-headed IMG_0047 by lonestranger102, on Flickr

Is there enough of the dark patagial markings to call this a young red-tailed, as the OP suggested? I think so, but....

It's probably not what you want to hear, but this article says it hard to tell the difference based on plumage. Tail feathers seem to be the key separator. https://fieldguidetohummingbirds.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/rufous-vs-allens/

Sorry about the size of that one, and any others I may have goofed on. I like filling the viewing area with my photos, but not to the extent where you're forced to see it in pieces while you scroll through the image. *sigh* *BLAMES IT ON THE LIMITED EDITING TIME.... EVEN THOUGH I KNOW IT WAS A BRAINFART ON MY PART*

Owl, Barred

I think the humour fail was mine, not yours.

Oh quit acting like a bunch of seedlings and just grow up.

Insectivore (House Wren) 0C3A0022 by lonestranger102, on Flickr

Dove, Mourning

Just out of curiosity, how many of you noticed that there's two different birds the first time around? Did I sneak that one past anyone?

Brown Creeper IMG_3700 by lonestranger102, on Flickr

Red-tailed hawks are quite variable in their appearance, including the visibility and brightness/darkness of their belly band. Some jump right out at you and look solid brown on a white belly, some show just faint flecks that barely show up on the white belly, and then there's the dark morphs that are dark overall and the belly band matches the same colour as the rest of the bird making the belly band even harder to pick up on. That's just a few of the variables. Isn't IDing birds fun?

Isn't that a WITCH owl?