lonestranger

I am sure that many/most already know this but for those that might not have figured it out yet, you can type a generic family name and the game will provide you with a full list of the possibilites that match. It won't help if the bird in question doesn't have an associated family in its name though. As an unrelated example, if you know you're looking at a goose and you type goose as your guess to help in your selection, you wouldn't find your bird in the list if you were looking at a Brant.

This series belongs in the Almost Good thread as much as it does it here. My exposure was good...for the landscape shots I took previous to these, but F/16 at 1/500 of a second probably wasn't the best settings for in-flight photos. They're still good enough to show more tenacity of the small birds, this time chasing a Bald Eagle as it approaches.

I am always amazed by the tenacity of small birds when it comes to chasing the big birds away, especially when the big guys could literally eat up and spit out the small guys.

birdie ? #34: ?????⬛ https://birdiegame.net/ I was fairly confident in each and every guess but I had to see it's namesake before I got it right. Could have had it two guesses earlier if I hadn't missed the logical clue of which end of the name some of my yellow came from.

Its weird how the brain makes connections to some things. I see those names and it reminds me of a Jessica and Robert I knew back in 2008. Always wonder how they and the rest of that crazy tribe are doing. Just thought the connection was interesting, but I know that only applies to me so ignore my babble.

Welcome to Whatbird, @robert2008 and @Jessica2008. Any chance the two of you are related? Identical twins sharing identical thoughts, maybe? ?

A little back story before I share another example of how special Shadow is. MJ and I rent a small 2 bedroom house on farm property in Mennonite country. The owner lives in the main century(s) old farm house and rents an apartment out to a lady and her 3 teenage children. When we first moved in there were cats everywhere and MJ and I did our best to distance ourselves and not get attached to the cats. Then Peanut showed up on our side deck, parking herself in my chair and not moving from it for days. She was thin as thin could be, but she was a farm cat that we didn't really want hanging around so we didn't put any food out for her in the hopes that she would move on and not create problems for the two dogs we had at the time. We gave her a bowl of water which she dove into as if she'd been deprived of it all her life. After three days of watching the cat starve to death on our doorstep, we broke down and decided to put food out for her. After feeding her for a few weeks she started to fill back out and get that healthy look to her. She wasn't a friendly cat, she's scratched and bitten me on many occasions but she started to come around after a while and started to let us pet her. Peanut ended up getting pregnant and raised three kittens in a heated box on our side deck. When the temps plummeted well below freezing we opened our doors and finally accepted Peanut into our house. We found homes for all three kittens and promptly got Peanut fixed as soon as the kittens were gone. Peanut was already pregnant again so they had to abort the pregnancy when they fixed her. Here's a photo of Peanut relaxing with us while we watch birds on the front deck. As I mentioned there are many cats on the farm and it seems that at least one of them is always pregnant or nursing kittens, quite often on my neighbours doorstep. Like us, she doesn't want to take responsibility for the cats, but she can't stand by and watch them die so she has been helping out anyway she can, food and water, bedding, outdoor shelter, etc.. One of the cats that she knew was pregnant went across the road somewhere to have her kittens. She watched the cat cross the road to come to the house for food on many occasions but could never follow the cat back to check up on the kittens, all she knew was that there were young kittens across the road, somewhere. It was Monday or Tuesday of last week when the mother cat got hit by a car crossing the road and had to be put down. We all started looking for the kittens knowing that they wouldn't last very long on their own. I hate to admit that I was the first to give up on the search, it just seemed hopeless with all possible hiding places a cat might give birth in. The fence line was our main focus, but the kittens could have been anywhere in the field. After three days of searching everyone had accepted the fact that the only way the kittens could still be alive was if one of the other lactating cats had taken over feeding the kittens, which we all hoped was the case. On Monday of this week, MJ took Shadow for an after dinner walk. As they were walking down the road, Shadow became alert to something in the ditch so MJ slowly gave Shadow more leash so she could go check it out. Shadow found the kittens right along the fence line where we had previously searched many times. MJ wasn't sure what Shadow had found at first until she heard very faint meowing. MJ texted our neighbour and called her out front to share the good news. They retrieved two kittens from the fence line and the next day found a home that could properly care for them. I don't know if Shadow's sensitive hearing alerted her to the kittens or if she used her nose to pick up their scent, but she became the hero of the day and put a big smile on everyone's face. In fact, that pretty much sums up why Shadow is so special. She just has a magic way of putting a smile on our faces, quite often when we need it most.

I know I have seen and photographed at least 9 species with Common in their name, but as usual, my poor organization skills makes it hard for me to find them all. Common Redpoll

BRDL 150 ???? ???? ???? ????

birdie ? #33: ???⬛⬛⬛ https://birdiegame.net/

I think you got the "Fantasy" part right. Especially the fantasy of seeing ONLY 2 House Sparrows. ?

LMAO....One of your best jokes ever...LMAO Thanks for the redirect. ?

Northern Shrike

The reason I used this particular situation to raise my concerns and not one of the many other examples you mentioned, is because I was actively involved in this discussion. I did not actively look for a situation to call out anyone, I was simply involved in a discussion where your posts triggered thoughts that seemed relevant so I tried to express them, admittedly, I could have done that better. It was NOT anything personal, DLecy, you just had the misfortune of setting me up for something to babble about.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

You're not alone there, Morales, but I'm confident enough in this case to confirm your ID as an Eastern Kingbird.

Phew, I was getting closer and closer to the end of the list/index but there were still other possibilities to choose from. Just luck for me this round, no logic involved. BRDL 149 ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????

As you pointed out, and I pointed out earlier, the quality of the original photos made the details in the tail very hard to see. On my phone, I couldn't even distinguish the difference between vertical tail bands in some photos and the bird defecating in other photos. So I know full well how fraught with difficulty it is to make an ID from poor photos, which is why I questioned the confidence of your first post. My "diatribe", as you called it, was included because I thought it might draw attention to the fact that absolute statements can be problematic, especially when combined with poor photos, as your second post shows. Not only can absolute statements about an ID be convincing to those of us that might not know any better, sometimes just because they come from a member respected as one of the site's experts, they might also be viewed as being insulting and/or dismissive to those that do know better. I apologize if this comes across as another "forceful and bitter verbal attack". That was/is not my intention.

I might have been able to get this sooner but an accidental double click skipped over one image and took me right to the last shot. birdie ? #32: ?????? https://birdiegame.net/

Welcome to Whatbird @Sary. I wonder if you might have been seeing a juvenile eagle. Both Bald and Golden Eagle juveniles can show varying amounts of white under their wings. Check out the thirteenth photo in this link which shows a juvenile Golden Eagle flying with a juvenile Bald Eagle. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Golden_Eagle/photo-gallery/60322111

It looks like a boat on fire to me, or one that's billowing smoke from some major engine problems as it struggles to make its way back to shore. I'm sure @SirVive will let us know which.

Northern Cardinal

birdie ? #31: ??⬛⬛⬛⬛ https://birdiegame.net/

BRDL 148 ???? ???? ???? ???? ????

Another approach might be to use the Healing Brush Tool or perhaps the Clone Tool and replace/paint over the busy background with less busy parts of the photo. I don't know what software you're working with but you might find more selection tool options if you right click on them. I use the Quick Selection or Magic Wand Tools together with the Healing Brush Tool for most of these type of edits but you might find other tools just as effective.