lonestranger

I'm not sure how full your mailbox is, but you may want to delete some older DM's as you get new ones so that your mailbox doesn't fill up and cause a snag along the way. 😉

I'm not going to wait until the middle of the week, I am going to toss out a hint right now. The bird is a Juvenile!! Since everyone will get an extra point from my hint, I expect everyone to provide me with a hint that will help ensure that I get more than just that one point. Juvenile Northern Mockingbird kind of fits but there is something almost familiar with this bird and I'm not overly familiar with Northern Mockingbirds so something just doesn't feel right. It might just be my near zero experience with Mockingbirds and zero experience with young Mockers. To be honest, my initial impression was a juvenile thrush, Eastern Bluebird juveniles are something I am familiar with, but they don't have wing bars so I started looking at other possibilities. I can't find anything better than a Juvenile Northern Mockingbird, but like I said, that just doesn't feel right for some unknown reason.(lack of experience being a totally acceptable unknown reason) Okay, this is were you offer your hints to help me get over my doubts....and get that extra point or two.

I was just thinking, if anyone comes here from a google search for flycatcher ID, they might think they were misdirected to an ancestry website.

Thanks Liam. Being on time has never been my strong suit. 🙄

I have to admit that I am waffling back and forth on this one, even after reading the replies. As others have mentioned, Northern Goshawk seems like a good fit, especially with those wavy tail bands. Then again, I think I have read something in the past about tail feathers of certain hawks being unreliable field marks during certain times of the year. Since we don't know when the photo was taken, I'm not sure if that applies to this hawk, if I got that part right and it does actually apply. I'll need to think on this one a bit longer. 🤔

We drive on Parkways and park on Driveways, I hope that doesn't stop you from ever driving a car. 😜

I'd shop around if I were you, @Quiscalus quiscula, Killdeer are a dime a dozen in many, many places.

The simplest solution to the rate bombing is to just stop worrying about the ratings. While we all want everyone to go WOW over all of our photos and call them 5 star photos, worrying about ratings from someone that doesn't like our photos does nothing except to take away from our enjoyment of taking the photo and sharing it with people that do like the photo. Just my personal opinion, but I think ratings are way overrated.

Just keep pulling it like a wishbone until it splits in two.

I think @smittyone@cox.net is wondering whether those birds with mixed plumage are called juveniles because they still have some juvenile plumage, or if they're called adults because they have some adult plumage. Is full adult plumage needed to be considered an adult or does adulthood begin with the first adult feathers?

I just checked and it seems like there are a lot of birds named after people. Hawks, warblers, sparrows, finches, orioles, woodpeckers, vireos, flycatchers, thrushes, geese, ducks, etc., etc., etc., are all named after people, and many are eastern birds so there's lots of options for both sides of the continent. It obviously won't be easy, but it might not be as hard as you think if you look at some of the options you have. Cooper's Hawk with any one of the many other birds would be an interesting but simple combo. Check out the link for a list of potential combinations. https://www.listchallenges.com/birds-named-after-people

Even the birds are trying to find ways to avoid facial recognition software.

I originally joined Whatbird on April 24, 2009. I know that @Bird Brain joined before me, sometime in 2008, I think. Are there any existing members that have been around longer than @Bird Brain?

What?????...Come on...it's not like you haven't wiped your nose on your sleeve before!

Can you imagine the combined total of posts there'd be if the new and old forums could have been merged? There'd be 646 pages in the Best Photo of the Day thread alone for the new members to sift through when they joined. 😄

I don't get it. Why are they calling us salt and pepper?

Looks like my photo only half loaded. You may have to click through to flickr to view that one.

I can't help but wonder if this spills out beyond the hummingbirds. After reading the article, you might not be able to say with any certainty that a male looking bird is actually a male bird. I can see the responses in the ID forum in the near future changing from, 'That's a female type bird', to, 'That's a male type bird'. https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/science/why-some-female-hummingbirds-look-like-males/

No, he's on third.

I use manual exposure. I typically start off at ISO 400, F/6.3, 1/800s and adjust each setting as conditions require/allow. If the birds are far away, I might open the aperture to as much as f/2.8 for a faster shutter speed or brighter exposure, or I might close the aperture to f/8 for more depth of field if the bird is close. I might increase my ISO to 1600 if I'm trying for an in flight shot with poor lighting and want the fastest possible shutter speed. I might slow my shutter speed down to 1/125s so I can drop my ISO down to 100 if I am shooting a stationary bird. Any form of auto settings would probably improve my photography, but it wouldn't be as challenging for me or provide the same satisfaction when I get it right. I'll admit it, I enjoy playing with the camera, it might mean missing a few shots, but auto settings have ruined my photos more often than I've done it to myself so I'll keep playing with my settings and try not to ruin my own photos.

Who's on first

For what it's worth, my first impression was Field Sparrow for the first bird. While I can't articulate why, chipping sparrow just doesn't feel right.

Or you can just stop beating the dead horse. 😜

Did you get permission from the photographer to edit the photo and upload it to Whatbird? If you edited the photo without getting permission first, then you definitely over edited. Don't forget to respect copyright rules. 😉 If you did get permission to edit the photo, it is still in bad taste to post someone else's photo without including credit to the photographer that took the photo.