Bird Id Part 2.5

[paulnj]

I was not claiming to be correct, but if indeed it is small we have us a Common Gull ;)

I am not the best at IDing birds, but do know the fieldmarks to look for. IDing birds isn't that easy sometimes.. even for me

Thanks for making me think!!

PLEASE keep the images coming too!

[SmartWombat]

regulus regulus, I think.

Looking at these again. I'm pretty sure I've captured two different individuals here.
Last photo is an exanple of the ofher 30 or so

[paulnj]

Firstly, welcome to my nightmare ;) I have deleted atleast 100 gigs of blurry heads alone !

What you have hear is a goldcrest, but had it been in the US we would have the EXTREMELY SIMILIAR golden-crowned kinglet. good images of them too!

On a side not, The US has RUBY-crowned kinglets, while the UK has it's cousin the FIRECREST ;)
No matter where you go in the world, the birds that fill a niche are relatively the same.... relatively ;)

[SmartWombat]

>>good images of them too!<<
You mean I can't just do cars ? Wow !

I heard this very high pitched song in the tree at the end of our road on the way back from last minute Christmas shopping - and came back with the 100-400.
Annoyingly I think the best identification shots were in the other tree about 20 yards away, so they're tiny crops. But the late evening light was so good on the closeups I had to include those.

[Lava Lamp]

Probbaly my best -ever shot of one of these. See them every day, but not usually close enough.

[Knight]

Imposing creature he is good Capture .....

[paulnj]

Ah the turkey vulture ;) the garbageman of the bird world!

I do agree that this is indeed quite a nice shot of a TV. I do see them at close range in flight at the hawk watch, but roosting at close range is a bit harder. I know were 6 roosts are(a church, high school bleachers, a mountainside , a big tree on a busy road and 2 radio towers), but only one, the mountain side, is worth taking images at. That location is 80 miles away and you would need to get there at sunrise/ sunset to see them roosting.

I will go out on a limb ;) and say you found one very close to a nasty rotten road kill just resting , which is when I see them close and low usually.

[Lava Lamp]

There is a group in a large nature preserve 15 minutes from my house. I can ususually see them circling, but last week, there were maybe as many as a dozen birds circling very low and resting in some large trees. There were both black vultures and turkey vultures. This turkey was failty close. There was a black one prety close, too. I'll post it later.

By the way, Santa Claus brought me a Sibley Guide the size of a dictionary. Very, very nice.

[mjs1973]

As I was coming home this afternoon I saw my first ever American Kestrel sitting on a road sign. Well, at least the first one I saw that I actually knew what it was. By the time I got my camera and back to the area where it was, it was long gone. I did come across a bunch of Ring-necked Pheasants tho. The first one is a 10-15% crop, the other two are full frame shots.

[paulnj]

. There were both black vultures and turkey vultures. This turkey was failty close. There was a black one prety close, too. I'll post it later.

By the way, Santa Claus brought me a Sibley Guide the size of a dictionary. Very, very nice.

I am not saying you are wrong about the black vulture ID, but take a look at PAGE 107 of that new book ;) Juvenile TV's look similiar to black vultures.

[paulnj]

I have only been able to sneak up on ONE kestrel in 5 years, so don't be disapointed that it was gone.

There is one cock bird that will become food or shot by a hunter . Being that ringnecked pheasants are ASIAN birds, I will bet it was stocked recently. Wild birds don't let you get close, like stocked birds do.

[Lava Lamp]

I am not saying you are wrong about the black vulture ID, but take a look at PAGE 107 of that new book ;) Juvenile TV's look similiar to black vultures.

Boy, just when you think you have one down... ;)

Here's a close-up crop of one that I thought was a black vulture. It very well could be a juvenile turkey vulture. It was perhaps a little bigger than a black. I thought there were blacks circling around though: in addition to the grey vs. red head, the wing tips were different, and the top of the wings lacked the brown you see on turkeys.

[paulnj]

Yes this is a TV ;)

No eye ring and brown feather.

The best way to tell them apart in flight is the wing pattern. Tv has white along the whole trailing edge of the wing, while Bv has just white wing tips.

[srobb]

I am thinking this is a female , but after looking at it a little more I wonder if it may not be a juvy.

[srobb]

Well, after a few failed attempts, I finally got this guy. It was reall comical watching him walk very gingerly across the ice.

I am still re-learning how to focus manually so these may have a little fuzziness to them.

[srobb]

Sorry about the number of posts, but thought it would make it easier than one post with a bazillion pics on it. ;) Plus, I don't think I could do that many on one post.

I know it's a woodpecker and have not had a chance to look it up in my new bird book yet.

[mjs1973]

I am thinking this is a female , but after looking at it a little more I wonder if it may not be a juvy.

I'm no expert but it looks like a female Cardinal to me.

[mjs1973]

Sorry about the number of posts, but thought it would make it easier than one post with a bazillion pics on it. ;) Plus, I don't think I could do that many on one post.

I know it's a woodpecker and have not had a chance to look it up in my new bird book yet.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

[srobb]

I'm no expert but it looks like a femail Cardinal to me.

Thanks, Mike. The way the plumage looked I thought it might have been a juvenile, but I suppose that could be the winter plumage.

[mjs1973]

I'm pretty new to this whole birding thing so I don't know anything about the changes in plumage yet. There are a couple more female cardinals on page 3 of this thread that will give you a little better look at them.

[srobb]

Here a couple more. Not sure about the first one. I did try to look up the second one and the closest I could come was a Summer Tanager.

[srobb]

One more here. Not sure of this one. Maybe a woodpecker of some kind.

[paulnj]

I'm no expert but it looks like a femail Cardinal to me.

looks female to me, but lacks the amount of red it should have in the wings.... maybe? it's a first winter female ;)

[paulnj]

Here a couple more. Not sure about the first one. I did try to look up the second one and the closest I could come was a Summer Tanager.

First is a northern mockingbird and the second is a male house finch ;)

[paulnj]

You found a yellow bellied sapsucker , which is indeed a woodpecker