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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by Rick Wright Tucson

  1. Rick Wright Tucson

    ID Help Finches, NW Mexico

    House Finch Long tails, curved culmens, and dingy wingbars make these birds House Finches, no? The bright color is explained by two circumstances many birders ignore: geographic variation and seasonal wear. House Finch males get redder and redder the farther south you go in their range. And the...
  2. Rick Wright Tucson

    White-crowned Sparrow Arizona

    The pale lore makes this Gambel's Sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii, the expected race in Arizona at this time of year. Z l oriantha, Mountain Sparrow, passes through later in the spring.
  3. Rick Wright Tucson

    Sparrow in Saint Louis, Missouri USA

    note the coarsely marked back, the heavy bill, short tail, and robust shape. This is a House Sparrow, Passer domesticus. The gray crown and black on lore and chin make it a male. Eurasian Tree Sparrow P. montanus has a chestnut crown, a white cheek, and a smaller bill.
  4. Rick Wright Tucson

    Princeton NJ

    Princeton Wood Duck: if there is still open water, you might run across them at Rogers Refuge (the water company marsh). They often linger late on Gull Pond at Brigantine, too. Red-headed Woodpecker: a couple of sites are reporting this species right now on the NJ birding list. An old standby...
  5. Rick Wright Tucson

    Grasshopper Sparrow ?????

    Oops! Oops!
  6. Rick Wright Tucson

    Grasshopper Sparrow ?????

    Looks like a Grasshopper Sparrow to me: huge bill, tiny tail, strong head pattern.
  7. Rick Wright Tucson

    Red Breasted or Red Naped Woodpecker, SoCal USA

    Using the Johnson and Johnson hybrid index (Auk 102), I came up with a score of 3 or 4 for this bird's head, placing it phenotypically closer to Red-breasted daggetti than to Red-naped. But really, who can tell without chopping 'em up, putting the resultant slop into a blender, and dipping in a...
  8. Rick Wright Tucson

    Unknown Sparrow Topeka Kansas USA

    These are disorientingly close and wonderful views of a Swamp Sparrow, no?
  9. Rick Wright Tucson

    Gull with fish in NJ

    This is an adult Herring Gull with the outermost primaries still growing. Pretty nice!
  10. Rick Wright Tucson

    Black and Gray, Med. Size, Texas USA

    This is a Northern Mockingbird--great bird! The long tail, alert aspect, and gray and white plumage identify it. Common or not, they're fantastic to have around.
  11. Rick Wright Tucson

    Which Merganser?

    Yes, the bill is very extensively yellow, which is more typical of females than of males, but please have a look at the tertials. I did not reverse "basic" and "alternate"--remember that ducks are in 'bright' feather in basic plumage and in dull feather in alternate plumage, unlike passerines.
  12. Rick Wright Tucson

    Dark Eyed Junco 2 Arizona USA

    Looks like Red-backed Junco (dorsalis), not unexpected at that location. Nice pictures.
  13. Rick Wright Tucson

    2 Arizona sparrows

    Bird Three is a Chipping Sparrow. See Gavin Bieber's comments on another recent Chipping Sparrow question at birdforum.
  14. Rick Wright Tucson

    Which Merganser?

    The males look nothing like this when they're in definitive basic plumage, but they are "hen-plumaged" when young and in alternate plumage. I may well be mis-seeing--easy for me with photographs--but the longest tert on this bird looks bright black and white with an extravagantly curled tip...
  15. Rick Wright Tucson

    Which Merganser?

    Isn't this a male with the big white streak on the longest tertial?
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