Orinda, CA - more October-November mixed (1 Viewer)

[Fandango739]

1) **** Sparrow (I've never been in an area that had so many kinds of sparrows before...)

2) ???

3) Sorry, I know it's a bad-photo long-shot...

4) a female...something...kinglet?

Thanks, gang!

 

[Tiraya]

1. white-crowned sparrow (immature)
2. house finch
3.
4. ruby-crowned kinglet, can't tell gender

 

[KenM]

Where was image 3 taken fandango....over water, fields, urban or other habitat?

cheers

 

[Fandango739]

Where was image 3 taken fandango....over water, fields, urban or other habitat?

Hilly, suburban area with a fair amount of trees. No large bodies of water, but there is a small stream.

 

[Tiraya]

Can only guess for 3. In that environment airbourne flocks generally end up being starlings or cedar waxwings.

 

[fugl]

How about crows for #3?

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

I was thinking some sort of swallow for #3.

 

[tril42]

Hard to be be sure from the picture, but the long, thin wings and flashes of white in #3 make me think nighthawks...

 

[fugl]

I've been assuming the white is a photographic artifact. . ..

 

[lou salomon]

i assume the white flashes are real - i can see them in at least 7 birds in the same place on inner arm: snow buntings.

 

[Po'ouli]

i assume the white flashes are real - i can see them in at least 7 birds in the same place on inner arm: snow buntings.

Not in California Lou! If you consider the diversity of responses so far, I think it is safe to say that these birds are unidentifiable from this photo.

 

[lou salomon]

these are passerines. if there are other sp. of flocking passeriformes showing a white inner arm around, i don't know them.

 

[Tiraya]

Would need more pics to call snow bunting...we've had a few buntings/longspurs moving through recently so not impossible.

 

[fugl]

I still don't think the white patches are real. If backlighting is implicated, say, the trailing edge of the inner wing is one of the places one might particularly expect them.

 

[lou salomon]

the way it is shown in different birds and always in the same place and the large shape of the white field in the bird with spread wing makes me think (and i'm quite sure on this) that it is not an artefact.

 

[fugl]

You're "quite sure"? Oh well, that's that then, end of the discussion.

 

[fugl]

How about Clark's Nutcracker?

 

[Kratter]

How about Clark's Nutcracker?

Not in Orinda!

How about Horned Larks?

Andy

 

[fugl]

Bald Eagles?

 

[Foxy]

I don't know enough about the alternatives in the USA to say whether they are or aren't Snow Buntings for certain but I am sure the white patches are for real rather than a trick of the light and I think that rules out most - all? - of them