birds
grrlscientist | December 23, 2008tags: Dickcissel, Spiza americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Dickcissel, Spiza americana, photographed at Eisenhower Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 25 August 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Wow, does that ever look like a House Sparrow! But wait, the tail is a bit too long, the breast a bit…
grrlscientist | December 22, 2008tags: Franklin's Gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan, Laughing Gull, Larus atricilla, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Franklin's Gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan, and Laughing Gulls, Larus atricilla, photographed the Quintana Beach and Jetty area, Texas. [I will identify these birds for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Let's begin with the bird just right of…
grrlscientist | December 21, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
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 enjoyment. Below the fold is this week's issue of The Birdbooker Report which…
grrlscientist | December 21, 2008tags: Yellow-headed Blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Yellow-headed Blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, photographed in Mary Ann Creek Rd & Chesaw Rd, Okanogan County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 1 April 2008 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/2000s f/7.1 at 300.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
It's a yellow-headed black bird -- it's a Yellow-…
grrlscientist | December 20, 2008tags: American Black Vulture, Coragyps atratus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] American Black Vulture, Coragyps atratus, photographed the Quintana Beach and Jetty area, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is clearly a large bird, and readily identified by a number of features visible in our quiz photo. But…
grrlscientist | December 19, 2008tags: evolution, behavioral ecology, parental care, egg incubation, dinosaurs, birds
The Oviraptorid dinosaur, Citipati osmolskae,
on a nest of eggs that was unearthed in the Gobi desert
of Mongolia by the American Museum of Natural History.
Image: Mick Ellison, American Museum of Natural History.
Oviraptors ("egg seizer") were given their name because their fossil remains were first discovered on top of a pile of eggs. Because of their close proximity to clutches of dinosaur eggs, it was initially assumed that these dinosaurs were eating them. However, in his 1924 paper, their…
grrlscientist | December 19, 2008tags: Male Northern Pintail, Anas acuta, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Male Northern Pintail, Anas acuta, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Just a bit of a bird -- but what bit? Those of us who figured out that this was the head of a bird looking straight away probably figured out the species with little difficulty. We have a very tall-headed bird with a narrow crown,…
laelaps | December 19, 2008
A keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
grrlscientist | December 18, 2008tags: Austroraptor cabazai, dinosaurs, Dromaeosauridae, birds, fossils, taxonomy, evolution
The newly unveiled Austroraptor cabazai (left) attacks a juvenile sauropod dinosaur in an artist's interpretation.
The giant raptor, found in Argentina, measured between 16.5 and 21 feet (5 to 6.5 meters) long, making it one of the largest raptors to roam Earth 70 million years ago, a new study finds.
A dramatic new carnivorous dinosaur that was bigger than a car was unveiled yesterday in public at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (the Argentine, or Bernardino Rivadavia, Museum of Natural…
edyong | December 18, 2008In 1995, a palaeontologist called Mark Norrell reported an amazing discovery - the fossilised remains of a dinosaur called Troodon, sitting on top of a large clutch of eggs. The fossil was so well-preserved and its posture so unmistakeable that it provided strong proof that some dinosaurs incubated their eggs just as modern birds do. And since then, two other small predatory species - Oviraptor and Citipati - have been found in brooding positions on top of egg clutches.
But a subtler look at these fossils reveal much more about dinosaur parenting than the simple fact that it existed. To…
grrlscientist | December 18, 2008tags: Female Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Female Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, photographed in Hermann Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200 Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/1.0 iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Hey, no fair! That's only part of a bird!
So go outside. Right now. And tell me how many whole birds you see. There…
grrlscientist | December 17, 2008tags: Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinensis, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2006 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Stout-footed, stout-billed, and terrestrial: any surprise that our mystery bird is an icterid? Its modest tail rules out the grackles, the yellow eye and pointed bill the cowbirds, the lack of streaking…
grrlscientist | December 16, 2008tags: Pyrrhuloxia, Cardinalis sinuatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pyrrhuloxia, Cardinalis sinuatus, photographed at Katy Prairie, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 1 February 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
That long, red-edged tail can belong to only a cardinal. While most of North America makes do with the…
grrlscientist | December 15, 2008tags: evolution, honeyeaters, Meliphagidae, Mohoidae, birds, ornithology, birds, molecular phylogeny, extinct species, South Pacific Islands
Two nectar-feeding birds from Hawai'i, the kioea (brown-streaked, in middle) and an o'o species (lower left), looked so much like nectar specialists from the western Pacific (two species on right) that taxonomists put them all in the same honeyeater family, the Meliphagidae. All the Hawaiian birds are unfortunately extinct, but DNA evidence shows that their resemblance resulted from convergent evolution, because the Hawaiian birds were actually much…
grrlscientist | December 15, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Sun Conure chick, Aratinga solstitialis.
Image: John Del Rio. [larger view].
Christmas Bird Count News
The Annual Christmas Bird Counts are rapidly approaching, so I am publishing links to all of the counts here; who to contact, and where and when they are being held, so if you have a link to a Christmas Bird Count for your state, please let me know so I can include it in the list:
Alabama (Thanks, Chazz Hesselein)
Arizona (Thanks, Sheri Williamson)
California (Thanks, Joseph Morlan)
Idaho (Thanks, Denise Hughes)…
grrlscientist | December 15, 2008tags: Lark Sparrow, Chondestes grammacus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lark Sparrow, Chondestes grammacus, photographed at the Potholes, Grant County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 25 May 2008 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/500s f/7.1 at 300.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Look hard and you can just see the tail of this handsome bird, lying parallel to the gray twigs it's perched among. At…
grrlscientist | December 14, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
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 enjoyment. Below the fold is this week's issue of The Birdbooker Report which…
grrlscientist | December 14, 2008tags: Snow Bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Snow Bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis, photographed near Cameran Lake Road, Okanogan County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 26 November 2008 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/800s f/8.0 at 300.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Now here's a Christmas cookie of a bird, all white sugar and maple frosting! If we can turn for a…
grrlscientist | December 13, 2008tags: Pine Grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pine Grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator, photographed near Molson, Okanogan County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 25 November 2008 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/500s f/6.3 at 300.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Pride and the fall: until I saw this picture, I would have laughed anyone down the stairs who'd claimed to see a…
grrlscientist | December 12, 2008tags: Gadwall, Anas strepera, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Gadwall drake, Anas strepera, photographed in Hermann Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200 Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/180s f/1.0 iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
What seems at first a dull duck becomes on closer inspection a marvelously subtle beauty, delicately variegated grays and…