AUTHORS NOTE: Due to the physical stresses of surgical recovery The Celebration Of silence will only be posting once daily for the month of March. We will resume our twice daily postings in April!
NOTE TO READERS: Yes, I realize I have rather rudely inserted this post in the middle of the Artists At Play mini-series but something came up I think you can help with. So get those minds warmed up and I promise you’ll have another posting from that line tomorrow.
Extinction. Evolution. The meaning of life. Whys is the fruit mix always on the bottom of the yogurt container?! These things are just some of life’s little mysteries and, while confounding as all get out, pale in comparison to the ultimate mystery that is sure to crop up in the life of any birder.
WTF kind of bird is that?!
Birders have many cute names to escape the pain of yet another missed ID. LGB (little grey bird) LBB (little Brown bird) LWB (I think you get my point here) but in the end it’s the same age old reaction….another set of note tucked in the back of your bird book after hours of fruitless searching. Another photo pinned to a cork board with a giant red circle around it and as many question marks as you can fit without covering any possibly important marks.
Let’s face it, identifying these guys can be pretty difficult…an ID can come down to the color of a beak, the chevrons on a chest of the pattern on a wing as I was reminded during a recent walk. There I was happily taking pictures of the lovely Common Goldeneyes just off a local boardwalk never knowing my world was about to turn upside down.When I got the pictures home I thought the male looked a little funny but assumed that as it had the classic head and lovely golden eye, that I was simply seeing a morph of some kind. Blithely I filed the shots and went about my day.
Some seven hours later I was sitting out for a cigarette when I suddenly leaped up and ran inside babbling a steam of incoherent words at my ever patient and totally confused partner. Finally she got it out of me. That wing marking was bugging the back of my brain all day and I had finally realized why.
This was a Barrow’s Goldeneye, not the Common I had assumed!
Now you non-birders in the audience are probably thinking I’m completely nuts. In my defense however I offer this simple fact. I had never managed to get a single, salvagable picture of a Barrow’s Goldeneye before! And I almost missed knowing what it was when I finally did get it! Well if you’ll kindly look below you’ll see why.
Black head, white face patch, black beak golden eye, black back, white streaking on wing, white underbelly, black tail.
Black head, white face patch, black beak golden eye, black back, white splotches….I mean really!
The only major differences I can see with these guys are head shape and wing marks and (at least for me that can sometimes get missed!
Anyway enough about the success story. I’m here to talk to you about the real down and dirty birds. Those ones you grab with a cell phone in terrible light knowing full well you wont get the shot just because you have never seen that bird before. Just like this one.
Seriously. Only a birder will ever know pain like this.
The Celebration Of Silence 
I do feel your pain when it comes to trying to id mystery birds. One time it took me a whole month to realize that the bird I saw was a snow bunting because I never saw one before and it wasn’t listed in any of my field guides. It seemed so obvious once I figured it out lol!
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Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I will definitely have to do some reading on hybridization and go back to the pond to see if I can spot him again! I love a good mystery!
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Since I enjoyed reading your post, I tried to figure out the 4 mystery birds at the end of your post. Here’s my thoughts.
1. It’s hard to tell from the distance, but I’m going to guess Long-tailed Duck. Pintails have chestnut brown heads and are more Mallard like in head shape.
2. I think it is a Rock Pigeon with variant plumage. They can have white or tan plumage as well, so I think that guy is a variant.
3. Fox Sparrow (either Red or Sooty). Song Sparrows are paler and are more streaky than blotchy like the Fox is. Fox Sparrows are lacking a pattern on their backs, which looks like that bird above.
4. Possibly a Snow Goose with some juvenile plumage left. Ross’s geese are very white and have stubby bills and this guy has some darker feathers on the head and upper body. This is a cool site for Snow vs. Ross’s: http://biology.eku.edu/kos/goose_id.htm
Anyway, thanks for giving me something fun to do on my Sunday afternoon!
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This made me laugh out loud – never a truer word lamented!!
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