birds
grrlscientist | August 7, 2009tags: White-fronted Plover, Charadrius marginatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] White-fronted Plover, Charadrius marginatus, photographed in Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dennis Paulson, April 2007 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 6, 2009tags: birding, bird watching, birds, Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds, Olivia Gentile, book review
I've written book reviews for most of my adult life, mostly because I liked talking about the books I've read but rarely found an audience, and also because I found this to be a great way to learn about interesting books that other people were reading. Since I've written a public blog for nearly five years, it was natural that I would publish my reviews on my blog, a practice that ended up adding a substantial number of books to my shelves at a time when I was…
edyong | August 6, 2009Aesop's fable "The Crow and the Pitcher" has been confirmed in a wonderful experiment. In the classic tale, a thirsty crow uses stones to raise the level of water in a pitcher until it rises within reach of its beak. This is no mere fiction - rooks, close relatives of crows, have the brains to actually do this.
The aptly named Chris Bird, along with Nathan Emery, gave four captive rooks (Cook, Fry, Connelly and Monroe) a chance to reach a small worm floating in a cylinder of water, with nothing but a small pile of stones sitting on the side. All of them solved the task, and Cook and Fry…
grrlscientist | August 6, 2009tags: Northern Rough-Winged Swallow, Stelgidopteryx serripennis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Northern Rough-Winged Swallow, Stelgidopteryx serripennis, photographed at the Katy Prairie, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 April 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
laelaps | August 6, 2009
A mother mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and her three ducklings, photographed in Cape May, New Jersey.
grrlscientist | August 5, 2009tags: Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Trachyphonus erythrocephalus, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Trachyphonus erythrocephalus, photographed in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 29 August 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, Nikon 200-400 VR lens at 400 mm. ISO 200, 1/200, f/7.1.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 4, 2009tags: Superb Starling, Lamprotornis superbus, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Superb Starling, sometimes known in American aviculture as the Spreo Starling in honor of its previous genus name, Lamprotornis (Spreo) superbus, photographed in Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, Africa. This species is the most common bird in its taxonomic family that the photographer encountered in Tanzania and Kenya. These birds were literally trash birds, he writes, hanging around trash cans, picnic tables etc. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen,…
grrlscientist | August 3, 2009tags: Mocking Cliff-Chat, Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Mocking Cliff-Chat, Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris, photographed near Lake Manyara, a shallow alkaline lake in Tanzania, Africa. Lake Manyara was described as the "loveliest [lake] ... in Africa," in Ernest Hemingway's 1953 nonfiction book, Green Hills of Africa. it is also the home of a diverse set of landscapes and wildlife. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 9 August 2006 [larger view].
Nikon D2X camera, Lens was the Nikon 200-400 VR…
laelaps | August 3, 2009
An osprey (Pandion haliaetus), photographed while I was kayaking in Cape May, New Jersey.
grrlscientist | August 2, 2009tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
grrlscientist | August 2, 2009tags: American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, photographed in Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 29 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
laelaps | August 2, 2009
An osprey (Pandion haliaetus), photographed while [I was] kayaking in Cape May, New Jersey.
grrlscientist | August 1, 2009tags: Upland Sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Upland Sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda, photographed at Quintana, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 8 April 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | July 31, 2009tags: Field Sparrow, Spizella pusilla, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Field Sparrow, Spizella pusilla, photographed at Paul Rushing Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 28 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | July 30, 2009tags: Indigo Bunting, Passerina cyanea, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Indigo Bunting, Passerina cyanea, photographed on High Island, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 April 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/400s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | July 29, 2009tags: Harlequin Ducks, Histrionicus histrionicus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Harlequin Ducks, Histrionicus histrionicus (mostly males, but there is a female in the foreground), photographed at low tide at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 8 June 2009 [larger view]
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Are all the birds in this image the same species?
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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grrlscientist | July 28, 2009tags: Pileated Woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Pileated Woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, photographed on Katy Prairie, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 April 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/400s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.