Ducks, Blackbirds, and Sparrow (Redding, CA, USA) (1 Viewer)

[CalvinFold]

Last ones!

This was a great trip for bird photography. Well, I didn't always get the best photos, I did see alot of new species at minimum.

1. Golden-Crowned Sparrow?
2. Red-Winged Blackbird?
3. I really don't know.

 

[KC Foggin]

#2 is definitely a Red-winged Blackbird.

Can't confirm 1 & 3.

 

[Corvus cornix]

I'd say that #3 are Ring-necked Ducks

Cheers

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Agree with red-winged blackbird and ring-necks. I think #1 is a golden-crowned, but I'm not especially familiar with that species.

 

[CalvinFold]

I'd say that #3 are Ring-necked Ducks

Now that you mention it, I believe I had tentatively ID'd it the same while on the road, but couldn't seem to re-find the ID or remember what I had figured it out as once I sat down at the computer to process the photos.

#2 is definitely a Red-winged Blackbird.

I know that was probably pretty obvious, but a curious thing my GF and I have noticed: the SF Bay Area Red-Winged Blackbirds, at least in the East Bay area, don't get as pronounced a yellow strip, if they get one at all; but north in Yreka/Shasta area the yellow stripe is quite striking.

So I sorta "knew" the it was a Red-Winged, I wanted to be sure; y'all surprise me with some bird I never heard of sometimes when I think I have something "obvious." :eek!:

 

[Birdbrain22]

Agree with Golden-crowned Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird and Ring-necked Ducks.

And with that you have reached your limit of hyphenated birds in one thread.. congrats!

 

[rkj]

I know that was probably pretty obvious, but a curious thing my GF and I have noticed: the SF Bay Area Red-Winged Blackbirds, at least in the East Bay area, don't get as pronounced a yellow strip, if they get one at all; but north in Yreka/Shasta area the yellow stripe is quite striking.

So I sorta "knew" the it was a Red-Winged, I wanted to be sure; y'all surprise me with some bird I never heard of sometimes when I think I have something "obvious." :eek!:

What you are seeing in the Bay Area are a race of Red-winged Blackbirds that are the common breeding form in much of California, sometimes called "Bicolored Blackbird" because they mostly lack the yellow on the wings. Up in Redding is a form more like that in most of the range of the species with a conspicuous yellow band on the wings.

 

[CalvinFold]

rkj, that is some very cool information about the "Bicolored Blackbird"...wow, learn something new every day!

 

[TLeukering]

I presume that the blackbird is not a Tricolored Blackbird, though the angle of the picture and the features visible do not provide anything certain to hand a certain ID on, at least in my experience. The yellow (Red-winged) or white (Tricolored) feathers of the epaulet patch are the median coverts, which can, depending upon the bird's posture, be exposed and visible or not.