Hasan

I missed that this was Mississippi as well on my first pass... Either way, this is definitely not a Virginia. The light coloration, long neck and structure are beyond conclusive for King/Clapper.

Great-crested is much brighter than this, Dusky-capped is much daintier, etc. etc. I've seen a whole lot of Ash-throated, and this is a classic Ash-throated.

This actually looks to be a King/Clapper Rail, a much much better bird.

I'm not a gull person but just off the top of my head, what's eliminating 3rd cycle Western here?

The left and back bird are quite clearly Westerns. However, I would be very cautious calling the frontmost bird a Semi- its bill is in that overlap range where it is on the short-billed side for Western but perhaps just a tad bit longer than most Semis out west. Also, those scaps are fairly bright for that time of year- not impossible for Semi but definitely on the bright side. It's really hard to judge from a single photo, and I don't think I'd call it solely on this.

Holy.. I miss birding in the west lol

Ash-throated.

That, and the small bill and dove-like appearance.

Is this really identifiable? It's probably been a year since I've last seen a HUVI but I'm not really convinced we have enough to make an ID here.

By bill length and shape alone I would be shocked if this wasn't a Black-chinned.

The photos leave a lot to be desired and I wouldn't call it solely on these, but I see no reason the second bird isn't a Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

No, this is a HOFI

The hummingbird is an Anna's- a great example of why gorget color is deceiving. The key here is to notice the gorget shape and the breast/belly color- Costa's should be noticeably whiter than this.

Bill length is not a good field mark to go by.

Yes.

Yep

Self-found 3rd(?) County record of Spotted Towhee, IL. Oddly enough there's currently another Spotted Towhee on the opposite side of the county that has been there since the CBC.

This is definitely not buffy enough to be a Sedge, Marsh or Carolina Wren. However, while this superficially looks similar to Rock Wren, something just seems off with the GISS IMO. I've seen bunches of them and this just strikes me as a particularly dull House Wren. Notice that really short bill.

This is a Rufous/Allen's type bird. We would need to see, at the very least, a tail spread to eliminate either one.

This is for all you bird call sleuths out there. A bit after dusk, I had a bird in central Illinois respond to a saw-whet tape. It sounds just about identical to the smack call of a Brown Thrasher, and there's a single (what I thought was unreliable) report from earlier this week, but this is a frequently visited spot so I thought it would have been detected by now if it was there. That said, I'm curious if there's any other species this could be. Thanks. brown thrasher.mp3

Apologies, d'oh. Meant to say Glossy, typed White-faced. It's that one that lives in the east lol

I'm not entirely convinced on the second bird- it seems kind of ambiguous to me

All of these Swans are Tundra. Note the pinched off look of the lores on the adults and proportionally small bills.

As someone who is originally from the east, this is definitively not a Palm. The GISS is off completely for Palm, not to mention the plumage.

The bill is quite thin on the myiarchus flycatcher so this is an Ash-throated.