Melierax

Looks better for Golden to me. Light nape and lightish tail markings.

Yes there was an entire sub section with all sorts of non-bird stuff.

First thought is leucistic grackle as they tend to get leucism on their heads. Yes, location, behavior, and habitat would help a lot.

Xantus's Murrelet... it got split into Scripps and Guadalupe Murrelet but I suppose I can count it haha! Here is a Scripps I recently saw:

So... I hate to be pushy... but it's been a really long time now and people have been requesting new forum sections similar to our old Whatbird but nothing seems to be happening. @Administratorand @Aveschapines ?

I believe based on range Pacific-Slope Flycatcher. Looks right as well.

Oh, I just googled it

The location is stated. It has both ladder backed and nuttals. I'm afraid they're all ladder backed with the limited knowledge I have. The wide white stripe coming off the back of the head appears to extend at least most of the way to the throat in all the photos. Wait for a more experienced IDer though.

Here is an interesting diagram I found: The yellow is where their center of vision is (the most receptors in the eyes) and the dark areas are where their vision overlaps to form binocular vision. The Woodcock is the only bird that can see a full 360 degrees. Really interesting when you think about it!

Yeah I might count it. It's more of a personal thing. Technically it counts, but a lot of seeing a bird is actually properly seeing it. A lot of the time I'll count a bird but later I'll see it again and want to count it as a lifer because of how lame the view was previously.

Congrats!

Due to the brownish undersides and the hint of a long tail, I believe this is a Barn Swallow.

Haha hope you get better Trevor! I got really sunburned as well in San Diego this last weekend... I put sunscreen on as well but somehow I got fried anyway. I guess that's what I get for having Irish heritage haha! That was a really fun trip to San Diego! I'll post pictures at some point. We went to La Jolla and saw Black Turnstones, Heermann's Gulls, Brown Pelicans, Brandt's Cormorants, and Surfbirds! Later we went to Balboa Park and saw Nuttall's Woodpecker, Anna's Hummingbird, Townsend's and Black-throated Gray Warblers, Bewick's Wren, Red-shouldered Hawk, Black Phoebe, and California Towhee. Then we went on a boat ride to go whale watch! We saw a Gray Whale pair and a whole pod of about 100 Common Dolphins. There were a ton of Black-vented Sheerwaters and Elegant Terns. Also got Common Murre and another Murrelet/Guillemot looking thing. Then on the flight back we stopped in Oakland and at the airport terminal there was a great birding spot with tons of Scaup, some Shoveler, Cinnamon Teal, Marbled Godwits, American Avocets, and Black-necked Stilts. For some reason it was 75 and sunny the whole time in San Diego, but when we got back home to the desert it's like 100% humidity and rainy

Thanks!

Haha you're always welcome!

Where was this? They are either canyon or California towhees. EDIT: Actually, I may be being an idiot here. Towhee was my first impression but now I'm second guessing myself.

I'm at my gate getting ready to fly to San Diego!

This is a Downy Woodpecker with that tiny bill!

This is a Wilson's Snipe making a winnowing display. They do this super high in the air sometimes so that's probably why you couldn't see them flying around!

Yay!!! Congrats!

I'm not sure you can. I think @Aveschapines can do it for you ? Welcome back!

To clarify: I don't really know who does what in forums, but everyone who is doing something now, you guys are all awesome. All I know is someone was keeping the site up to date and working technically before the crash and that isn't happening any more. Maybe it's major technical issues? I don't know but at least it would be nice to hear about it.

Oh I definitely did not mean that. Aves does an incredible job. I'm more just wondering who is supposed to be doing the IT work and why nothing is showing for it.

I just got kicked off my birding chat on discord for personal issues unrelated to birding. I want to turn to this forum to replace the birding fun but it's impossible when the site keeps going up and down all the time and the members are not listened to in relation to creating a better website with better subsections etc. I do wonder where the mods and admins are every time the website crashes. Do we need more people to keep track of it? I understand no one is paying for this service, but no one pays for eBird and they run the website to perfection because they are under Cornell. This website is under iBird so I'm a little confused why we don't have the quality service we had before the major crash. I'm considering starting my own forum but being a 17 year old with no resources that would be impossible. I'm already running my Kestrel webcam which requires everyday monitoring. I agree with millipede in that we get literally no feedback as the website crashes constantly. It gives the impression that someone started the website and just let it go. Maybe I'm getting the wrong picture but from the viewpoint of a member this is certainly the appearance. It certainly does not give an inviting appearance for new members when the website is down half the time.

Thanks!