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Daily Bucket: Who dat bird? [1]
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Date: 2023-09-23
Hi all — I started birding about 3 years ago with the advent of the pandemic. I got my field guides and joined e-bird but I am still learning so much every day. But some birds are so similar that it’s a real challenge to figure out just who you took a picture of.
I’m up in Portland, OR at a conference and sneak away one morning to drive the auto tour at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. I ‘m planning a future bucket on this excursion.
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I get lots of birds I know, the Starling, Turkey Vulture, Red-Wing Blackbird and the Great Blue Heron along with some other cool photos. But the bird in the title photo stumped me. He was quite a distance away and I only got one shot before he took off. He has the beak of a woodpecker type bird and the wings striping typical of flickers. My initial guess was Northern Flicker but the head color is wrong or maybe he is a juvenile. I can’t find this bird in the field guides.
Next a raptor flies over. I have just seconds to snap a shot. It’s a shot straight up in the air. Silhouetted against the sky he comes out a little dark but I lighten the photo enough to see the color pattern under the wings.
Northern Harrier or Goshawk?
Go to the field guides and there are two raptors with similar patterns and it hard to see other marks. I am hoping it’s a goshawk but it could be a harrier.
And finally those darn LBBs (Little Brown Birds).
A white throated Sparrow?
He mostly had his back to me and I got great butt shots. This is the only one where he turned his head and looked my way. I go back to the field guides and there are several sparrows with a white throat. Once again there are no additional identifying marks.
So just who are these guys? Inquiring minds want to know. What do you do when you only get one shot in bad lighting.
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