InternetJunky posted:

Is there any chance my wife and I saw a yellow-billed magpie in Edmonton, Alberta?

We were driving yesterday and at a stop light we were both watching a magpie picking through the leaves. Initially we both thought he had a french fry or something in his mouth, but as we got closer and passed him in the car it became clear it was his beak colour and not a fry. We both blurted out "yellow-billed magpie!" at the same time. We rushed home to grab the camera but couldn't find him again.

I checked eBird and they seem pretty constrained to California.

InternetJunky posted:

I don't think I ever posted a link to my Gannet and Puffin shots from my summer trip to Newfoundland. If you're a birder this needs to be a bucket list trip, and if you're not a birder you'll leave as one.

Here's a link to a gallery of 50 shots from the trip (warning, some graphic images showing gull-on-Puffin violence): http://colquhoun.smugmug.com/Newfoundland

hey santa baby posted:

I have like 50 pictures of this guy, but all are too fuzzy to make out anything on his band, sadly.

And I'm itching to ebird the white-crowned sparrow but I don't want to be a streaker, or whatever it's called when you just call a bird because you want it to be that. Stringer?

lord funk posted:

Ahh the red tail. The most disappointing of hawks.

"Oooh! Hawk! There! It's.... a red tail."

razz posted:

Last year my ornithology lab students did a comparative anatomy dissection. Basically they all dissected a different species that people had brought into us as roadkill/window strikes, etc. In various stages of decomposition.

Anyway I always try to salvage parts for the museum after the dissection and I was amazed at how large this Great Horned Owl's foot was compared to my hand. I mean, I know they're big birds but when you actually have one there in front of you, it's pretty incredible! That thing could literally kill you if it wanted to I bet.

InternetJunky posted:

Speaking of bird crimes, I was about to head a few hours south tomorrow to get a look at a short-eared owl that was hanging around in the same area for a few weeks now but someone posted a picture of a rough-legged hawk killing the owl this morning.

Does anyone know how common this type of behaviour is in roughies? There is a huge number of them in Alberta right now (compared to last year when I saw none) and I wonder if that's why I'm not seeing any Great Grays so far.

quote:

3. Ensure that feeders, nest structures, and other artificial bird environments are safe.

3(a) Keep dispensers, water, and food clean, and free of decay or disease. It is important to feed birds continually during harsh weather.

3(b) Maintain and clean nest structures regularly.

3(c) If you are attracting birds to an area, ensure the birds are not exposed to predation from cats and other domestic animals, or dangers posed by artificial hazards.

Kawalimus posted:

I would just still call it "owling". Anytime owls are the main focus of a bird expedition it's owling. Like howling without the h.

InternetJunky posted:

Any chance an ID is possible from this picture?


Taken in Jasper, Alberta

I suspect Scaup but I don't know if it's possible to tell Lesser from Greater.

Count Freebasie posted:

quote:

Count Freebasie posted:

Okay, this poo poo is hard. Caught two pictures of this bird (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) and the closest guess I can figure is a Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, but according to iBird there are like 35 birds here with yellow bellies. In the third pic, is that a juvenile of the same type or a different bird altogether?

I hate to keep hounding everyone here, but this is way harder to identify stuff than I thought. Just trying to learn

Antifreeze Head posted:

Hello bird thread!

I have a bird that keeps flying into my house (like, not into the walls but through the door). I've set him up in a box with some holes, a couple of branches for perches and some water.

What the hell kind of bird is this?

Rotten Cookies posted:

Hey bird nerds, can I get some help on an ID? My friend sent me this picture asking if I knew what sort of bird it was. It was taken in a backyard on Long Island, New York. The closest I've looked at is a Cassin's Vireo, but that would be way out of range. Nashville Warbler is close, too, but this bird has a more distinct white eye/face region and the white outline on the wing feathers (I don't know the proper term for this, lacing?) I asked him how it was behaving, but he didn't remember anything or take notice. Sorry if this isn't a lot to go on. I'm only just trying my hand at the bird thing, really. It could be a juvenile something, but I don't know.

(Sorry for the photo, it was taken through a window screen.)



Anyway, any help is appreciated! I can't wait to hear how easy this ID is and how I botched it up!

Linedance posted:

Could use some help id'ing this guy:

kingbird sp1 by Ruth O Birds, on Flickr

We think he's a tropical kingbird, but he's definitely a vagrant if he is. When flycatching off his post, he didn't have the black tail or dark back like a western kingbird, and his tail was quite long. He was seen near one of the ranches on the way to the lighthouse at Point Reyes near San Francisco.

Pablo Booth posted:

Chris Dodds runs a workshop to place called Saint Paul Island in Alaska that includes Tufted Puffins, although it's not exactly cheap. There's a small town on the island so you could try arranging your own trip.

Kenshin posted:

Please help with an ID birding thread, I cannot find this in my Sibley guide but it's probably because I don't know where to look, and neither Merlin Bird ID nor Backyard Bird Finder helped.

I took a picture of it this morning around 9:30am at Three Forks Natural Area in Snoqualmie, WA. It looked like around the size of a finch or large sparrow. This was the only shot I got of it before it flew off.