Forum Birdwatching 2012

[Humanzee]

Walking down the street today, I got "swooshed" by a couple of ravens, making a lot of noise!
Looking around I saw a juvenile in a pine tree..apparently on its first trip away from the nest.
The older birds were quite agitated, one was tearing the ends off the branch it was sitting on, and tossing them at me.
One actually hit me!
I'd seen the same behavior a year ago, but the close passes overhead from behind were new.

Very interesting. That's got me looking through Raven behavior links. Thanks!

 

[Humanzee]

Also spotted this pair of (I think) young Mourning Doves in, what seems to me, a very small nest.

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) Tualatin NWR, Sherwood OR

 

[Humanzee]

Neat!

I have been looking all year with no luck then one just walks out of the grass right in front of me. I agree, neat!

 

[GeeMack]

A Virginia Rail came out of the grass during my walk Sunday at Tualatin NWR in Sherwood Oregon. Stood around just long enough for me to snap this.

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=829&pictureid=6193[/qimg]
Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola)

Nice. I've never seen a Virginia Rail, but I have seen a Sora Rail. Love those oversize feet!

 

[GeeMack]

Yesterday we had the good fortune to spot this Little Green Heron...

ETA: Central Illinois, USA.

 

[dasmiller]

Nice. I've never seen a Virginia Rail, but I have seen a Sora Rail. Love those oversize feet!

I've only seen one sora live, in the wild. I had no idea what it was at the time, but manged to get a couple of pictures and then figured it out later. I always kinda keep an eye out for them now, when I'm in the right sorts of places, but haven't bumped into one since.

 

[I Ratant]

Very interesting. That's got me looking through Raven behavior links. Thanks!

.
One of them would also attack the roofs of the house it was sitting on, stabbing the shingles with its beak when I got close.
Couple years back, a raven I named "Notchwing" for a missing feather would fly to me from wherever it spotted walking out back, sometimes a 1/4 mile away, and just scream at me and make passes... always from behind... .. he was having a lot of fun.
I told the neighborhood kids to watch over there in 20 minutes.. walked out to where I told them to look, and Notchwing did his thing. We all enjoyed it.
He vanished.. the same time I saw some new fired shotgun shells out there.
I guess some brave sportsman got scared that a bird was going to carry him off.

 

[I Ratant]

Here's one of the ravens attacking the shingles on a roof, when I get near the juvenile bird...
.
A video of the raven tossing branches at me...
http://youtu.be/TO4BU09qvX8

 

[I Ratant]

There's two families of ravens that get excited when I take a walk outside.
One has two adults and a juvenile... this is the branch tossers.
The other has a single adult and a juvenile.
I had thought these were the first bunch I'd seen that day, and had moved, but it is two bunches.
Both noisy, the juvenile for the second bunch likes the passes from behind, and flares up and away when I turn to look at it...
Both sets can be relied on to fly around and make noise when I get close.
They ignore other people walking, just come around me.

 

[Quietus]

Female Little Crake Porzana parva, at Clovelly Wetlands, near Cape Town South Africa.

First record for South Africa and first south of the Equator since a record from Zambia in 1980; given the number of people who saw it and photographs (none by me sadly) is likely to be accepted Birdlife SA rarities committee.

Had some excellent views of it in the open, displaying very un-crakelike behaviour. Wikipedia's abbreviated entry describes it as 'very secretive", which it definitely wasn't. Can anyone expand?

 

[Quietus]

(I think this is Zanzibar Red Bishop Euplectes nigriventis, but I'm not sure. This field had at least six different Euplectes species, plus a lot of other stuff... The only lice I collected in Tanzania came from a Speckeld Mousebird Colius striatus. The louse was a Colimenopon hamatus.)

Definitely a breeding male bishop. Not a Euplectes commonly referred to as a widowbird. Not (Northern or Southern) Red Bishop. What are your other options, with regard to location and habitat?

 

[GeeMack]

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), common in most of North America from the state of Washington, east to Maine, and south to Georgia. They winter mostly in the Caribbean and along the Gulf of Mexico from Florida all the way down to Panama. This one was seen this morning in central Illinois.

 

[NoahFence]

Another what the $#*( is that bird this morning:

Naturally being small and quick, I only had a moment to get this image.

It appears to have spots on its chest, perhaps indicating a young bird of some kind. Could it be a type of Bunting? A Finch? It's head was really red.

Well, it probably still is, but it was a chew and screw type of visit. This is the only image I could get.

Hard to see but there is a bit of spotting going on like a baby robin would look like. But clearly it's not a robin!

 

[GeeMack]

Another what the $#*( is that bird this morning:

Naturally being small and quick, I only had a moment to get this image.

[qimg]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q195/strido527/whoisthat.jpg[/qimg]

It appears to have spots on its chest, perhaps indicating a young bird of some kind. Could it be a type of Bunting? A Finch? It's head was really red.

Well, it probably still is, but it was a chew and screw type of visit. This is the only image I could get.

[qimg]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q195/strido527/whosthat_small.jpg[/qimg]

Hard to see but there is a bit of spotting going on like a baby robin would look like. But clearly it's not a robin!

Looks like a House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus).

ETA: Here's the write-up at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

There is another bird called a Purple Finch which looks similar. It probably wouldn't show much or any of the streaking/spotting you've described. It also tends to be a little more raspberry colored while the House Finch has a slightly orange tint. The color difference can be pretty subtle, but your photo seems to be in good light, so I'm confident it's a House Finch.

 

[NoahFence]

I don't think so... I dunno.

There was an awful lot of yellow on this guy. Again, hard to tell because they never just sit there and let me get a good photo. But the chest was very yellow. You can sort of see a "V" where the neck meets the chest that I've not seen on a house finch before.

 

[NoahFence]

Immature Summer Tanager!

that's a life bird for me!! Right there at the feeder. Imagine that.

It looks a bit more like a Western Tanager, but given the range, I'd go with Summer. Even though they apparently are much further south than Massachuetts.

Either way, it's a hellova sighting!


.......My first Summer Tanager on the first day of Summer.

synchronicity!

 

[EHocking]

Definitely a breeding male bishop. Not a Euplectes commonly referred to as a widowbird. Not (Northern or Southern) Red Bishop. What are your other options, with regard to location and habitat?

I'd go with Zanzibar Red Bishop Euplectes nigroventris

 

[CORed]

[qimg]http://www.calvorn.com/gallery/photos/medium/25AB7365.jpg[/qimg]

Immature Summer Tanager!

that's a life bird for me!! Right there at the feeder. Imagine that.

It looks a bit more like a Western Tanager, but given the range, I'd go with Summer. Even though they apparently are much further south than Massachuetts.

Either way, it's a hellova sighting!


.......My first Summer Tanager on the first day of Summer.

synchronicity!

A Western Tanager has a much smaller patch of red on the head, and has dark wings with white bars, so I'm sure it wasn't a Western Tanager. The Western Tanager is a beautiful bird, usually seen in mountain areas of Western US. Most I have seen have been in Ponderosa Pine forest.

 

[Humanzee]

The yellow and the beak sure throw me off if that is a House Finch. However, I am truly unexperienced and shouldnt de-lurk to comment. Hopefully it will be back for a glamour shot.


Orange-crowned Warbler, Sauvie Island, OR. First time that I, on hearing a song, knew there was a bird I hadn't seen before and I needed to find it. Snapped this crummy shot.

I'll fess up to using I-Bird to ID the song.

 

[Humanzee]

Really nice shot Gray Catbird photo, btw!