lonestranger

LOL...I knew that was coming. At least I felt competent for a few minutes today, I suppose I could thank you for that. I could...but I won't. ?

BRDL 156 ???? ????

I'm not familiar with this bird but with the help of a telling first photo and iBird's photo index, it was fairly easy to narrow down my options. It was still a guess, just not a wildly incompetent one. Did you see that @Charlie Spencer? birdie ? #39: ?⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ https://birdiegame.net/

I've got one of those ^ Snowy Owl

I think putting my name in the same post as the Kardashians is insult enough, thank you very much, @Charlie Spencer. Including my name in the same post as politicians, well that's just down right mean. Drawing a line that connects me to the incompetent is one thing, drawing a connection to me and politicians is a low blow and I won't stand for it. *remains seated until the insults are over*

You forget how stupid some humans can be.

Well, I can't argue about whether the flash fired or not. I apologize, @IKLland, it obviously did fire. I still don't see anything in the photo to indicate the use flash though. In order for the on-camera flash to be effective, the bird would need to be fairly close because the flash only reaches 11 feet on zoom and 22 feet on wide angle. While the flash must have fired, I question whether @dragon49 was close enough for it to have much, if any, effect. Then again it's entirely possible that I simply can't see the effect of flash, if it's there.

I see nothing to indicate the use of flash in any of the photos on that checklist. The Limpkin photos show a bird partially shaded from full sunshine. The sunlight is falling on the grass behind the shaded shoulder of the bird whereas flash would have to highlight the shoulder in order to be that bright on the grass behind it.

So do I. I get just as much of a kick out of watching the small birds chase each other away from territory or a potential mate. While the interactions are usually harmless and often humorous to watch, the birds always seem serious and not what I'd call playful. Although I do believe that certain individuals of any given species might enjoy being the bully, for lack of a better word, more than other individuals of the same species and some may even show off afterwards making it look like they're having fun.

BRDL 155 ???? ???? ???? ???? ????

I was all over the map on this one. I pay so little attention to this family of birds that I didn't even think to consider them an option until it became super obvious. birdie ? #38: ?????⬛ https://birdiegame.net/

This was a first for me. We were sitting out on the front deck watching the birds Thursday evening when we heard this strange sound coming from up the road. It was short bursts spaced out at times and in rapid succession at other times. All of a sudden I spot the source of the sound as it shows itself from behind the neighbour's trees, a hot air balloon drifting through the river valley below the tree tops. We see hot air balloons all around us on a regular basis but this is the first time I've seen one give a tour from within the valley instead of from above. This thing was so low that I joked to MJ that I wasn't sure if it was floating on air currents or the river currents. The balloon is rising out of the valley at this point so I can only imagine just how low they were prior to us spotting them.

No offence NancySmith133, but if your professional birders are looking to Google and Merlin to ID your bird, they might not be as experienced as you first thought. Even an inexperienced birder like me knows that Google is riddled with mis-identified photos, and Merlin is prone to mis-identification too, sometimes on obvious birds. I'd take Google and Merlin suggestions with a grain of salt, the same applies to suggestions coming from birders that use Google and Merlin as their only source of reference. ?

Baltimore Oriole

BRDL 154 ???? ???? ????

birdie ? #37: ??⬛⬛⬛⬛ https://birdiegame.net/

I watched that very same behavior just yesterday, @ricardo00. The female Killdeer was very vocal while displaying and then the male flew in and coupled with the female a few times. Killdeer will also do the broken wing routine to draw attention away from the nest but if they're displaying their breeding parts, it's probably for breeding purposes.

That one took longer, and used more resources than it should have. I was more stumped after I got the third letter than before. BRDL 153 ???? ???? ???? ???? ????

birdie ? #36: ?????? https://birdiegame.net/

I like trying to see if I can ID the bird. As you well know, I need all the help I can get, so I'll take it any way I can find it. ?

Did I confuse you @Charlie Spencer? When @Jessica2008 repeated @robert2008 the first time, she embed a link that wasn't in @robert2008's post. When she repeated @robert2008's second post she once again embedded a link that wasn't originally there, thus the trend I was referring to. Does that help with your confusion, or did something else confuse you? *knows its easily done*

I'm seeing a trend here. Perhaps @Jessica2008 could teach @robert2008 how to embed a link so she doesn't have to come back and do it herself.

That's a good strategy that I hadn't considered. Like @Charlie Spencer, I sometimes make empty guesses when I'm stumped. Your suggestion not only creates a chance to get lucky on a wild guess, it can point you to, or away from, a specific part of the name. ?

I guess I should have looked further than AAB for southern birds. Wikipedia shows MANY Southern named birds. I didn't see any crossovers though, no Northern and Southern birds seem to share a common name so why bother? Eastern and Western birds share common names and are usually associated with different ranges, but that doesn't seem to apply to Northern and Southern birds. ?‍♂️