Bird ID summer 06

OK, Paul, since I seem to be the novicest of birders here, I will start a new thread for ya.

As an example of my inexperience with winged things with 2 legs, I start with this image. Not all birds can hover, right? I thought this was "just a sparrow" until I noticed it can hover. What is it?

And a fitting start this photo is Loupey well Captured :) And i have no idea what kind it is lol, to tired to look lol

That's not an easy ID, but I know :wink:

That's a willow flycatcher. It was saying :RITTT, REEEP, ritzbew(or Fyou). IDing birds by sound is crucial with flycatcher, but the willow can be ID'd without sound usually.

Here's a Baltimore Oriole watching over her nest. Yesterday I built an oriole feeder and placed in along the edge of some woods where I had seen some orioles a week or two ago. I tried to set the feeder up in one spot, but the ground was too hard, so I choose a spot with more shade, hoping the ground wouldn't be as hard. It worked, and so my feeder was set. Today I got up early to go and sit under a tree with a good view of the feeder. Within 5-10 minutes of getting set up, I noticed a pair of orioles in the trees above the feeder. I watched them for a littl while, and they disspeared. A few minutes later, they were back. Then they would dissapear again. As I was looking for a good place to sit when I first got there, I thougth I saw something in one of the trees that looked like it could have been a hanging nest. Once I got settled in, I looked and looked for it, but I couldn't see it. Then one of the orioles landed on a small branch in the tree right above the feeder. The weight of the bird was enough to cause the branch to dip down a bit, exposing the softball sized nest hanging on the branch. The nest was in the tree, directly above the feeder I put up! What are the chances of that? Once both of the adults were out of site, I moved to a spot with a better view of the nest, and waited. It wasn't long before both birds where back. The female flew to the nest, and just sat there, in plain view of me for about a half hour. She didn't seem agitated or even aware I was there. I after a while I was wanting to leave but I didn't want to get up and scare her, so I just sat and waited for her to take off on her own. After a while I thought she was never going to leave... Eventually my attention was diverted by some other birds, and when I looked up at the oriole nest, the adult was gone. I quickly packed up my stuff, and headed for the truck.

As I was driving home, I saw something blue flittering around along the side of the road. As I got closer I could see it was an indigo bunting, but what the heck was it doing? As I got even closer, I finally realized that the brown lump of grass that I thought it was on top of was actually Mrs. indigo bunting. I turned around hoping to get a shot for the "procreation thread" but they were gone when I got back. :)

Thanks for the wonderful story to go along with your great shots, Michael. It's always interesting for me to hear how people got the shots they got.

Here's one to separate the bird nerds from the wannabes. What kind of bird left this feather behind?

Your joking right?

That IMHO is a Buteo secondary wing feather :D red-shouldered is my guess assuming it was taken recently and locally. It looks very broudwinged like though and could even be a redtailed?

Being as I didn't learn to ID birds like Audubon(who shot and killed them), I can ID whole birds much easier :wink:

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Originally Posted by paulnj

Your joking right?

That IMHO is a Buteo secondary wing feather :D red-shouldered is my guess assuming it was taken recently and locally. It looks very broudwinged like though and could even be a redtailed?

Being as I didn't learn to ID birds like Audubon(who shot and killed them), I can ID whole birds much easier :wink:

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:thumbsup: I didn't see the bird lose this feather, so we may never know without a shadow of a doubt, but I found it yesterday in FL underneath a tall tree where I've seen a young osprey perch repeatedly. I have seen a hawk in that tree, but not for a while and not this year.

That's unbelievable about Audubon. :(

Yes, John J Audubon(who the Audubon societies are named after ) killed alot of the birds he went on to paint. He really wasn't an orinthologist or even a conservationist by any stretch of the word. He was a great painter/illustrator who published a book on north american birds.

That is very likely an osprey feather, but looks buteo like to my untrained eye. It isn't a broudwinged if you shot it recently because they were going through in april :wink:

Here's a couple shots I took while walking the dogs this afternoon.
Indigo Bunting and a sparrow. Not sure about the sparrow... could it be a young field or chipping?

I shot this one about a month ago, and never got around to posting it.

Cooling Indigo, Michael. I've not seen any of those in my parts.

Well, I don't know if Paul is ever coming back from his life-altering experience but I will post this shot which is probably a no-brainer. Shot this evening as I was drawn to it's stange call - kind of like a sick cat meow.

Loupey - looks like the Gray Catbird, I hear them 'meow' often where i live. :p

Here is a Cedar Waxwing I shot this past weekend. I was down by the creek and he landed on a branch above me and i was able to get about a dozen shots of him. This is the first time I've ever seen one of these around here, wish I could have gotten a little closer:

Attachment 29111

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

Here's a couple shots I took while walking the dogs this afternoon.
Indigo Bunting and a sparrow. Not sure about the sparrow... could it be a young field or chipping?

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fledgling field sparrow :wink:

Is that a GREY PARTRIDGE? I have never seen one, but that's what it looks like to me.

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Originally Posted by quetzal

Loupey - looks like the Gray Catbird, I hear them 'meow' often where i live. :p

Here is a Cedar Waxwing I shot this past weekend. I was down by the creek and he landed on a branch above me and i was able to get about a dozen shots of him. This is the first time I've ever seen one of these around here, wish I could have gotten a little closer:

Attachment 29111

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catbird indeed.

Nice cedar waxwing!

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Originally Posted by paulnj

Is that a GREY PARTRIDGE? I have never seen one, but that's what it looks like to me.

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It very well could be. I wasn't sure, but that is one of the birds I considered when cunsulting my field book. There were two of them together when I shot this. They were in a pretty open field, then ran across the road in front of me to another field. I only got off a couple of shots, and the others are really blurry so this is all I have to go by.

I think it is, because if not it can only be the oddest looking female bobwhite I have ever seen :wink:

Two grab shots while at the family picnic yesterday. Image quality sucks but I really want to get a shot of especially the first one - some kind of pecker?

Loupey - Nice pics; the bottom one looks like a white-breasted nuthatch. The top looks like a female Downy or maybe Hairy woodpecker? It looks alot like the ones i see in my backyard and I always thought they were the downy's.
Paul should be able to confirm this for us. :) Btw Paul, thanks for the cedar waxwing compliment!

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Originally Posted by paulnj

I think it is, because if not it can only be the oddest looking female bobwhite I have ever seen :wink:

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Female bobwhite was my 2nd guess also. :)

looks hairy to me based on the limited facial view and beak size.

These three from yesterday. Sorry about the hawk one - one shot before disappearing behind the trees.

First time I caught any of these on film before :)

retailed hawk, female and male ruby-throated hummingbirds

Photographed this bird this afternoon. Thought he was a snake for a moment. Didn't notice the reflection until after I downloaded it.