The prettiest bird in North America (IMHO)

Wendy said:

You finished your shower and THEN went and looked up the bird ? And you call yourself a birder.

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Yep I did. You see I have never called myself a birdwatcher or a birder. I don't take binoculars with me into the field. I don't wear the birdwatcher uniform (light brown vest with lots of pockets). I don't carry a field guide with me. I have never called the rare bird hotline and I can't identify any birds just by their sounds. I am a bird photographer. Besides that I was smelly. :-\

SeilerBird said:

Besides that I was smelly. :-\

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And that will scare away the birds

Wendy said:

And that will scare away the birds

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Exactly ;D

Another of my favorite birds was the Toucan (Fruit Loops bird) I saw in the wild in Florida. "Birders" said I couldn't count it because it was an escapee from somewhere. I counted it anyway. And it sure was cute.

Best state for finding interesting birds was Florida. They have a lot of BIG birds that are easy to identify. Love Flamingos and Roseate Spoonbills.

Wendy said:

Another of my favorite birds was the Toucan (Fruit Loops bird) I saw in the wild in Florida. "Birders" said I couldn't count it because it was an escapee from somewhere. I counted it anyway. And it sure was cute.

Best state for finding interesting birds was Florida. They have a lot of BIG birds that are easy to identify. Love Flamingos and Roseate Spoonbills.

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I agree that you should count it. Another reason why I don't call myself a birder is because I don't agree with a lot of their "rules". For example, if you see a Condor at the Grand Canyon you can't add it to your life list unless you happen to see one of the 10 Condors that were actually hatched in the wild. Seeing a captive breed bird in the wild doesn't count. Huh?

I am heading for Florida right now for a three month visit. I will be there in a week and I am so excited. I will be meeting a lot of forum members while I am there.

Beautiful shot Tom.

I haven't been too active lately, especially birding. Pretty soon I'll take the gear down to Costa Rica for a week in the rain forest. Hopefully I get a few worthy of posting.

Wendy said:

You finished your shower and THEN went and looked up the bird ? And you call yourself a birder. Shame on you. But it is a pretty bird. Checked my life list and I picked one up in 2008 in Blythe after the Qtz rally. Not pretty, but my personal life list favorite is Pileated Woodpecker, spotted in Alabama.

I should go out tomorrow morning and check out the birdies on the beach except that shorebirds can be a pain to identify

Wendy
Bolsa Chica State Beach

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I have a female Pileated Woodpecker that comes to my suet feeder outside of my bedroom sliding glass door everyday . What a distinctive call they make! Seeing them up close really brings home the descended from dinosaurs aspect.

Tom,

Nice photo! Saw one of those in Lukeville, AZ in '97. I only had a lousy digital camera then so I did not get a good shot. Haven't seen one since.

Wendy said:

I should go out tomorrow morning and check out the birdies on the beach except that shorebirds can be a pain.

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Wendy have I got a book for you. This one is the best I have ever found for identifying shore birds. It is a small book and you can get it used for under $3.

http://www.amazon.com/Stokes-Beginners-Guide-Shorebirds-Donald/dp/0316816965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358454530&sr=8-1&keywords=shore+birds

Thanks Tom, I may pick up a copy. Now if I could just those little buggers to hold still so I could identify them !

Wendy said:

Now if I could just those little buggers to hold still so I could identify them !

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That is exactly why I take photos. That way I can compare the photos to the field guide when I inside my RV. I can't identify most of them either in field. They move too fast and they all look alike.

SeilerBird said:

Wendy have I got a book for you. This one is the best I have ever found for identifying shore birds. It is a small book and you can get it used for under $3.

http://www.amazon.com/Stokes-Beginners-Guide-Shorebirds-Donald/dp/0316816965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358454530&sr=8-1&keywords=shore+birds

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Don't feel bad. Even with that guide and a good spotting scope, some shore birds can be very difficult. For example, I am never certain of my ability to distinguish a Greater Yellowlegs from a Lesser. Some of the peep Sandpipers are just as bad.

Although , not exactly shore birds, the immature (1st and some 2nd year) Gulls can also be difficult.

While not shore birds at all, the absolute worst are the Empidonax Flycatchers. I can recall being with a group of banders who had one in their hand and were examining specific feathers with a magnifying glass. They never did agree about whether it was a Willow Flycatcher or an Alder Flycatcher.

Joel

Beautiful bird. I have a question for bird knowledgeable people. Last year we camped at santee cooper state park  S.C. Every evening near campstore a bird would sind for about 30 minutes before dark. It consisted of a bunch of different sounds it was great to listen to. Wife taped it on her phone,at home she dropped phone cracked face and lost bird tape when getting new phone.My question is what bird can make about 30 different songs whistles and sounds,im guessing it may have been a mocking bird? It was brown and white I think,but it was a beautiful serenade.

I know what you mean about gulls. Saw a big herd of gulls earlier today at Bolsa Chica and half were unidentifiable, at least for me .

Wendy

wylie said:

Beautiful bird. I have a question for bird knowledgeable people. Last year we camped at santee cooper state park  S.C. Every evening near campstore a bird would sind for about 30 minutes before dark. It consisted of a bunch of different sounds it was great to listen to. Wife taped it on her phone,at home she dropped phone cracked face and lost bird tape when getting new phone.My question is what bird can make about 30 different songs whistles and sounds,im guessing it may have been a mocking bird? It was brown and white I think,but it was a beautiful serenade.

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Yep it was probably a Northern Mockingbird. Their territory includes almost all of the southern US. Minah birds crows, ravens and jays can also imitate other birds real well, but the mockingbird is the only one that sings like you are describing. Absolutely beautiful.

wylie said:

Beautiful bird. I have a question for bird knowledgeable people. Last year we camped at santee cooper state park  S.C. Every evening near campstore a bird would sind for about 30 minutes before dark. It consisted of a bunch of different sounds it was great to listen to. Wife taped it on her phone,at home she dropped phone cracked face and lost bird tape when getting new phone.My question is what bird can make about 30 different songs whistles and sounds,im guessing it may have been a mocking bird? It was brown and white I think,but it was a beautiful serenade.

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The Northern Mockingbird is gray above and white below. The wings are blackish with white wing bars.

More likely you had a Brown Thrasher. Both birds are in the family Mimidae and have the same general shape. The Thrasher is brown above with a heavily streaked white breast. It sings rather random sounding song and then repeats the same song almost exactly. A few seconds later, it comes up with another totally different song and then repeats it. He is one of my favorite birds.

An ornithologist once tried to determine how many different songs a Thrasher could sing. He recorded one bird for three days and then fed the recordings into a computer that counted how many different songs there were, and how often a particular song was repeated. Statistical analysis determined that the number of songs a thrasher could sing was at least 3000. However, since some songs occurred only once in the three days, it was possible that he was making them up as he went along. If that were the case, The number of possible songs might be infinite.

Not wanting to waste his recordings, he tried playing them in the territory of another Thrasher. The owner of the territory sang each song back almost perfectly.

Joel

Wendy said:

I know what you mean about gulls. Saw a big herd of gulls earlier today at Bolsa Chica and half were unidentifiable, at least for me .

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Actually gulls are one of the easier groups to identify. But there are some secrets. If you like Wendy, the next time I see you I can teach you Gull 101 and make you a gull expert in a few minutes.

The thing that makes gull identification so difficult is that most birds species are juveniles the year they are born and then are in full adult plumage the next year. With gulls many species take up to four years to become an adult. The plumage of first, second, third and adult are all different. But with a bit of practice you can tell how old each juvenile is. One thing is constant will all gulls. If you see any black color on the tale it is always a juvenile. If you see an only white tail it is an adult.

Another problem is that Sibleys lists something like 27 different gulls, however where you are in Bolsa Chica there are really only about 5 gulls you will see. Herrmaan's Gull is the easiest to ID, it is the only grey gull with a red beak. Ring-bills are probably the most common in your area and they are small gulls with a black ring on their beak. California gulls are huge and have a red and a black mark on their beak. Western gulls are the biggest and have red mark on the beak and a dark grey back. Herring gulls look like Westerns except the back is a light grey. With this knowledge alone you should be able to ID almost every gull you see.

SeilerBird said:

I agree that you should count it. Another reason why I don't call myself a birder is because I don't agree with a lot of their "rules". For example, if you see a Condor at the Grand Canyon you can't add it to your life list unless you happen to see one of the 10 Condors that were actually hatched in the wild. Seeing a captive breed bird in the wild doesn't count. Huh?

I am heading for Florida right now for a three month visit. I will be there in a week and I am so excited. I will be meeting a lot of forum members while I am there.

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Tom, what part of Florida are you headed for? I will be heading there in a few days also. We will be doing the panhandle this year.

My favorite sites there for bird photography are the St. Marks National Wildlife Preserve in the panhandle, Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve on Sanibel Island, the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades National Park, and Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary east of Naples.

Joel

Great Horned Owl said:

Tom, what part of Florida are you headed for? I will be heading there in a few days also. We will be doing the panhandle this year.

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I will actually be in Florida for three months and I will be visiting all parts of the state. I have six different forum members that want to hold mini rallys while I am there. I will be in the panhandle in less than a week. I will be staying at Karick Lake and will be checking out some bald eagle nests. I would love to meet up with you. My plans aren't set in stone. PM me if you want to finalize something.

My favorite sites there for bird photography are the St. Marks National Wildlife Preserve in the panhandle, Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve on Sanibel Island, the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades National Park, and Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary east of Naples.

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The first three are my favorite sights also. I have not been to Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp. But I will Google it and see if I can fit it in.

Tom,

We should be able to do Corkscrew one day if you want to make the run. It is about 3 hours over to there.