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USA 2 (az) (1 Viewer)

opisska

opisska

rabid twitcher
Czech Republic
1 - Organ Pipe
2-5 - Buenos Aires NWR (Eastern or Western Meadowlark?)

End of March 2019
 

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Last edited:
First of all only the last two are Meadowlarks. I find it very difficult to ID them from pictures but they are easy to tell apart by their songs.
The first three are all sparrows.
1. Clay-colored Sparrow
2-3. Vesper Sparrow

edit: I should say I could be wrong about the sparrows. ;)
 
Last edited:
Seth Miller said:
First of all only the last two are Meadowlarks. I find it very difficult to ID them from pictures but they are easy to tell apart by their songs.
The first three are all sparrows.
1. Clay-colored Sparrow
2-3. Vesper Sparrow
Click to expand...

Thanks! I can tell a Sparrow from a Meadowlark - I just wanted to stress that the question regarding the later is Eastern/Western as both are reported from Buenos Aires. Telling Sparrows from each other though, it's a completely different story, none of those were close to my guesses!
 
opisska said:
Thanks! I can tell a Sparrow from a Meadowlark - I just wanted to stress that the question regarding the later is Eastern/Western as both are reported from Buenos Aires. Telling Sparrows from each other though, it's a completely different story, none of those were close to my guesses!
Click to expand...
Sure. I was guessing it was just a clarity issue.
I didn't know exactly what the sparrows were, but I used eBird for the area and checked the sparrows.
Also, did you hear the meadowlark sing at all?
 
Seth Miller said:
Sure. I was guessing it was just a clarity issue.
I didn't know exactly what the sparrows were, but I used eBird for the area and checked the sparrows.
Also, did you hear the meadowlark sing at all?
Click to expand...

Not in this area. We had others elsewhere that we IDed moreorless as Western by song, but in Buenos Aires, it was kinda gloomy and birds did not sing much.
 
I think the Meadowlarks in that area are complicated by the fact that breeding birds are likely to be the Lillian's form which may eventually be recognized as its own subspecies.

Niels
 
From distant memory (1992?) of living at Buenos Aires NWR for 6 months, Both Lilian's and Eastern were around much of the reserve, and there were far fewer Western overall, but Western was the common one around the HQ buildings. That may of course not be the case any more.
 
We have indeed seen some birds that seem to be clearly Lilian's. That form is much easier to distinguish and thus makes ticking "Eastern Meadowlark" easy - but it would be nice to have positive examples of both forms, in preparation for future splits.
 
In regards to the meadowlark, I would say Western based on

1. only two outer tail feathers on each side with extensive white

2. very plain face, but not especially pale overall
 
Seth Miller said:
That's definitely worth something, Merlin is ridiculously accurate even on some tough species!
Click to expand...

On the other hand, the people in charge of Merlin states that it is a help, not a stand-alone identify-er. It still need to be evaluated by a human being whether the correct result is no 1, 2, 3, or even 10 of the listed options.

Niels
 
Thanks for the infos! I won't sweat the Brewer's/Vesper issue, we do have both from earlier anyway (somehow IDed, don't ask me how though :))
 
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