American migrants quiz

[tomjenner]

I have given these photos a bit of heavy cropping. See if you can figure out what they all are. They are all North American migrants that were mist-netted in El Salvador. There are 8 in total. Note that the photos don't enlarge much when you click on the thumbs.
Good luck
Tom

[tomjenner]

The next 4

[TorchBCT]

American Goldfinch, Painted Bunting for first two?

[Bluetail]

This is damned difficult! I can almost guarantee that not one of the following will be right:

1. Blackburnian Warbler
2. Broad-billed Hummingbird
3. Sage Thrasher
4. Swainson's Thrush
5. Warbling Vireo
6. Purple Martin
7. Townsend's Warbler
8. Wood Thrush

[Tim Allwood]

Is first one a Hermit Warbler?

[Tim Allwood]

last one Wood Thrush?

[Michael W]

Here's my go...

1. Cape May Warbler
4. Swainson's Thrush
5. Warbling Vireo
7. Townsend's Warbler
8. Wood Thrush

Are they all North American birds?

Michael

[Bluetail]

Yes, I think you two are right about the Wood Thrush. Altered my post above.

[tomjenner]

It sounds like you all agree on Wood Thrush, so here it is. A few of the answers above are also correct, but I'll leave you a bit of time to agree on some more.
In answer to Michael - yes they are all migrants from North America.
Tom

[MPIFER]

My guesses. Number of question marks indicate my confidence in the guess!!

1. American Goldfinch?
2. Painted Bunting?
3. Eastern Meadowlark?
4. Brown Thrasher??????
5. Eastern Bluebird??
6. Common Grackle???????
7. Lesser Goldfinch (maybe Baltimore Oriole?)?????
8. Wood Thrush?

[tomjenner]

Some good guesses so far. Brandon and MPIFER were both correct with Painted Bunting; Jason and Michael were both correct with Swainsons Thrush, Warbling Vireo and Townsend's Warbler (see full pics below). That still leaves three. So far one of them has been guessed correctly, but I won't tell you which one it is quite yet, as it has not been identified correctly by others.
Tom

[erizzo]

Here go a few random guesses just to get to know its not something as crazy as this
1 Yellow Grosbeak
2 Spragues Pipit or Rock Wren
3 Bonzed Cowbird
I know this are about as far as you can get but I'll do it anyways.

[Bluetail]

Well I still can't make #1 anything other than a Blackburnian, even though the yellow looks a bit too vivid. Is there anything else that combines whacking white median coverts, white streaks on the mantle and an extensive yellow collar? Hmm...

#3 could be anything. I'm not even sure what part of the bird I'm looking at.

Changing my mind on #6. I'll bid you an Eastern Kingbird.

[Ben Rackstraw]

Could #1 be Western Tanager?

...sorry didn't read the rules - W Tanager was my guess when I thought Blackburnian had been excluded, so I'll go with Jason.

[tomjenner]

Well done Jason and Ben in identifying the Blackburnian Warbler correctly. Jason didn't seem too confident with his first set of answers, but it turns out that he did extremely well.
Nobody has yet come close with the last two, so here are a couple of clues. One is from the family tyrannidae (oh no, I hear you all cry) and the other has its wing held open to show its orange underwing coverts and part of its breast. If this doesn't help, I may have to pan back a bit to give you a wider view.
I should have said earlier, thanks to Jennifer Smith for letting me use her photos.

[Bluetail]

So #6 is a Tyrannidae but not an Eastern Kingbird... Hmm... I'll have to get back to you on this.

#3. Ah... Right... So it's not something sitting in a cardboard box! My original instinct was to go for Northern Flicker, but I thought the spots were too small. However, if the buffy-orange bit is the underwing coverts, it could just be that after all.

[Bluetail]

Black Phoebe for #6?

[tomjenner]

Still no luck with these last two Jason, but keep at it. The one with the orange underwing is a passerine, the other is best identified by wing formula, but the lack of strong wing bars is a very good id feature to separate it from the main confusion species.
Tom

[Larry Lade]

3. Green-tailed Towhee ??
6. Western Kingbird

[Bluetail]

Getting close to wild guesses now...

3. Hermit Thrush
6. Vermilion Flycatcher

[mattpau]

3. is Rose-breasted Grosbeak but 6? Willow Flycatcher? Clearly I haven't a clue.

[tomjenner]

Well done Paul for identifying the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Only the Tyranid to go.

[Grousemore]

Western Wood-Pewee.

[tomjenner]

Well done Trevor. The last one was a Western Wood-Pewee. I'm at work, so I can't post the full image, but I will put it up when I get home.
Tom

[mattpau]

Tom

Thanks a lot for a neat quiz!


the other is best identified by wing formula, but the lack of strong wing bars is a very good id feature to separate it from the main confusion species.
Tom

I certainly considered the wood pewees but could find no reference suggesting one tended to have fainter wing bars than the other!

[Bluetail]

Yes. Thanks, Tom. That was fun. :t:

[Grousemore]

Well done Trevor. The last one was a Western Wood-Pewee. I'm at work, so I can't post the full image, but I will put it up when I get home.
Tom

Thanks for the quiz and sorry I came in so late, when all the hard work had been done and the field had been well and truly 'narrowed' !

[Motmot]

Crap, I´m late!

[tomjenner]

I certainly considered the wood pewees but could find no reference suggesting one tended to have fainter wing bars than the other!

This feature is mentioned in Sibley and I have found it to be quite a good feature, based on birds that I have identified on voice and on where I see them. I don't believe that it is 100% reliable, but a pretty good indicator. Here is the main photo of the Wood-Pewee.

Thanks to everyone for taking part. I may do another similar one soon.

[erizzo]

Yup thank for the fun

[mattpau]

This feature is mentioned in Sibley and I have found it to be quite a good feature, based on birds that I have identified on voice and on where I see them. I don't believe that it is 100% reliable, but a pretty good indicator. Here is the main photo of the Wood-Pewee.

Thanks to everyone for taking part. I may do another similar one soon.

Yup - it's right there in Sibley. Obviously that particular reference wasn't handy when I considered the pewee possibility. Kaufman's Advanced Birding devotes a whole chapter to the pewees and mentions this mark too, but only for juveniles. Didn't quite read far enough when I consulted this reference!

Will look forward to (and dread - it's not easy) the next edition of the quiz!