Liam's Weekly Quiz!

[Liam]

Hi folks,

Just for fun I thought I'd create a weekly quiz. Every Friday (provided I remember), I'll post a picture of a challenging bird ID and participants may discuss amongst themselves what the correct ID is and note in bold their final answer. The following Friday, I'll share the correct answer and tally up the results on a scoreboard and then post the next bird.

You get 1 point apiece for the following taxonomy: family, genus, species. You get a bonus point if you can age/sex the bird correctly, if applicable (this may not be possible with some birds).

Location and date will not be provided, to add to the challenge. I will simply provide a photo and everyone will guess. It's helpful to include a reasoning behind your ID.

Hopefully this will be fun!

We'll start with this week's bird!

Edited September 3, 2021 by Liam

[Quiscalus quiscula]

Interesting. Almost like Tony Leukering's ABA quiz but weekly.

[meghann]

I'm going Immature Cooper's, but man I have some reservations and am second guessing myself.

[Quiscalus quiscula]

Certainly a Buteo, either Red-shouldered or Broad-winged in my opinion.

[Quiscalus quiscula]

1 minute ago, Quiscalus quiscula said:

Certainly a Buteo, either Red-shouldered or Broad-winged in my opinion.

However, with the relatively clear white supercilium, Northern Goshawk might be an option.

[Quiscalus quiscula]

Just now, Quiscalus quiscula said:

However, with the relatively clear white supercilium, Northern Goshawk might be an option.

Especially with the white spotted scapulars.

[Quiscalus quiscula]

Northern Goshawk, Accipiter gentilis, of family Accipitridae, of genus Accipiter. My best guess.

[HamRHead]

Well, with it standing in the middle of the road, it can't be a Roadside Hawk.

[Quiscalus quiscula]

2 minutes ago, HamRHead said:

Well, with it standing in the middle of the road, it can't be a Roadside Hawk.

Well, that among other reasons. ?

[Liam]

45 minutes ago, Quiscalus quiscula said:

Northern Goshawk, Accipiter gentilis, of family Accipitridae, of genus Accipiter. My best guess.

Just for clarification, you only need to provide the species name. The rest of the information is given.

So like let's say Jane guessed a Hermit Thrush correctly but John guessed Swainson's Thrush and Fred guessed Wood Thrush.

Jane gets 3 points (she guessed species correct), John gets 2 points (he at least got the genus correct), Fred gets 1 point (he got the family correct).

Edited September 3, 2021 by Liam

[Quiscalus quiscula]

Just now, Liam said:

Just for clarification, you only need to provide the species name. The rest of the information is given.

So like let's say Jane guessed a Hermit Thrush correctly but John guessed Swainson's Thrush and Fred guessed Wood Thrush.

Jane gets 3 points, John gets 2 points, Fred gets 1 point.

Okay, got it.

[Kevin]

Red-tailed Hawk.

[Aidan B]

Man, this is one tough bird! I can't figure it out!

[Kevin]

5 hours ago, Liam said:

You get 1 point apiece for the following taxonomy: family, genus, species. You get a bonus point if you can age/sex the bird correctly, if applicable (this may not be possible with some birds).

May I suggest adding a point if you are the first to come the correct id? Because when a better birder here joins in it is likely for some of us to follow along, assuming we agree. Thus letting us score the same by riding on someone else's expertise. 

 So Jane guessed a Hermit Thrush correctly, but John is not sure if it is a Swainson's or Hermit Thrush, but he knows Jane is a reputable birder, and generally right, he is probably going to guess Hermit over Swainson's.

Just a suggestion, obviously this is your thread, you can do what ever you want! 

[The Bird Nuts]

First year Northern Goshawk

[Quiscalus quiscula]

I was fairly sure of my ID, but as time goes on I get less and less sure of it! That's the way things work...

[Connor Cochrane]

I also have to go Northern Goshawk here. If I’m remembering aging of hawks correctly I believe this bird would still be considered a Juvenile. 

[Birding Boy]

Northern Goshawk juvenile male

[Aidan B]

I also think it looks like a juvenile Northern Goshawk. The surrounding habitat is very similar to where I have seen them before. 

Edited September 4, 2021 by Aidan B

[Liam]

4 hours ago, Kevin said:

May I suggest adding a point if you are the first to come the correct id? Because when a better birder here joins in it is likely for some of us to follow along, assuming we agree. Thus letting us score the same by riding on someone else's expertise. 

 So Jane guessed a Hermit Thrush correctly, but John is not sure if it is a Swainson's or Hermit Thrush, but he knows Jane is a reputable birder, and generally right, he is probably going to guess Hermit over Swainson's.

Just a suggestion, obviously this is your thread, you can do what ever you want! 

Perhaps it's best to have users DM me their results to avoid bias like this. I think that's how we did it before the site revamp. 

[Kerri]

@Liam@Kevin Does this site have the ability for a poll? If so, you could provide say 4 answers to the photo and we could select one.

So for the bird above you could have the choice of Northern Goshawk, Coopers, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered as an example.

Just a thought. 

I love the identify a bird idea - even if I still can't figure it out with confidence. Best part is it had me review a bunch of raptors hoping I could figure it out lol. 

[IKLland]

Immature Northern Goshawk. 

[Kevin]

5 hours ago, Kerri said:

@Liam@Kevin Does this site have the ability for a poll? If so, you could provide say 4 answers to the photo and we could select one.

So for the bird above you could have the choice of Northern Goshawk, Coopers, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered as an example.

Just a thought. 

I love the identify a bird idea - even if I still can't figure it out with confidence. Best part is it had me review a bunch of raptors hoping I could figure it out lol. 

Yes, but you can only do it for the original post. 

[meghann]

1 hour ago, Kevin said:

Yes, but you can only do it for the original post. 

And I think that takes a good bit of the sport out of it, having it be multiple choice. . .

I think it's not terrible for everyone to see each other's answers, and it could lead to some fun discourse, but could also lead to people phoning it in and following other people's leads. So. .. . .I dunno.

[Seanbirds]

On 9/3/2021 at 3:23 PM, Liam said:

So like let's say Jane guessed a Hermit Thrush correctly but John guessed Swainson's Thrush and Fred guessed Wood Thrush.

Jane gets 3 points (she guessed species correct), John gets 2 points (he at least got the genus correct), Fred gets 1 point (he got the family correct).

Doesn’t look very much like a Hermit Thrush to me…