Update 16 August: a new post Progress on the orange-throated hummingbird mystery. Update 14 Aug 2011: A follow-up to this post is now available, tempering some of these points and adding more questions – Orange-throated Hummingbirds: more questions. Every year in August and September, a few perplexed observers in eastern North America send out questions about […]
The mystery of the orange-throated hummingbirds Read More »
The North American Checklist Committee of the AOU has published the 52nd supplement to the AOU Checklist of North American Birds. This supplement includes a lot of changes “under the hood” which will hardly be noticed by the average birder. Several splits result in new names but none have an immediate impact on the North American
New bird names in the 52nd AOU Checklist supplement Read More »
Usually. Experienced observers can almost always identify these species correctly based on careful judgment of head shape and bill size, but these are subtle and subjective impressions, and require a foundation of experience and/or direct comparisons with Sooty. Other features can offer supportive clues or draw attention to a potential Short-tailed, but are not very
Can Short-tailed Shearwater be identified in the field? Read More »
The Eurasian subspecies group of Common Merganser, known by the English name Goosander, has occurred numerous times in the Aleutian Islands of western Alaska, but has never been identified farther east in North America. The American subspecies has some potential to wander to Eurasia, but has never been recorded there. I’ve never seen any in-depth
Distinguishing Eurasian and American Common Merganser Read More »
The photo above was recently sent to me by reader Wil Domke. It shows an adult Trumpeter Swan (based on bill size and shape, and on Wil’s identification in the field) with a small yellowish patch on the loral skin. This yellow marking is similar to the yellow spot shown by most Tundra Swans. According
Trumpeter Swans with yellow loral spots Read More »
Dark morph (Cory’s) Least Bittern Note: I have never personally seen a living Cory’s Least Bittern. In fact, only six or so have been seen during my lifetime. Most of what follows is based on a very thorough 1996 research paper by Ron Pittaway and Peter Burke (see References below). The illustration shown below is
The mysterious dark Least Bittern Read More »
I’ve been aware of some variation in songs of Blackpoll Warbler for many years, and now an interesting post by Andrew Spencer at Earbirding prompted me to check into it a little more closely. Many years ago Will Russell pointed out to me that the birds nesting in Alaska all sang a more rapid series
Does Blackpoll Warbler have song dialects? Read More »
In a footnote here I mentioned that blackish feathers can appear gray because of powder down, and now I will offer a little more explanation.
Powder down and the Black-crowned Night-Heron Read More »
On 18 May 1987, while birding at Cape May, NJ, I came across a small group of Cattle Egrets foraging in a field. Accompanying them was the bird in the photos below. In shape and behavior it was identical to all of the other Cattle Egrets, but its head and neck were mostly dark grayish.
Does Cattle Egret have a dark morph? Read More »
23 Jun 2011 – Concord, MA Sitting at my desk today I was roused by a bird call that I did not immediately recognize. This is a very rare occurrence for me, especially at my house where I spend many hours every day, and I know the birds that are here very well. As the