Worst misidentification (1 Viewer)

[Clive A]

Best of the best is the Nigerian guy coming to NZ to study who caught a kiwi in his garden on his first night in the country. He put it in a box and took it to his school, and was told "um, that's a hedgehog..."
(

That has got to take it!:eek!:

 

[whats that bird]

Whilst out dog walking in a local park I spotted an "owl" in a tree, heading off in the direction of the tree I discovered that there was not only just one "owl" but quite a few. I was beside myself with excitement, (and even said "i can see them theres a whole family of them") until hubby pointed out that they were cones!!!!!

 

[bradinho]

I have a pine cone onto which I place peanut butter, pastry, lard etc in order to feed the birds in my garden, it hangs from my bird feeding station at the bottom of my garden. Despite it being me placing it there and me who "tops" it up, I get up every morning bleary eyed and look out of the window and immeadiately rush for my bins to have a closer look at this brownish, starling sized bird !!!

Talk about being sleepy headed.

However, the reverse has happened t me involving exactly the same setup - one day I was looking at my pine cone feeder and thinking that the squirrel had messed with it, after several checks and several minutes I got my bins hoping not to be fooled again - turns out this time that the browinsh, starling sized bird was indeed a STARLING !!!!! It promptly stayed there for several hours pecking away at the peanut butter and regularly returns to fest but doesn't bring any of his mates - they all sit in a tree a way off....

(BTW - I'm off to the optician tomorrow)

 

[Chlidonias]

on internet photo site Flickr there are dozens of photos labelled as kiwi that are actually e.g. weka, partridge, white ibis, hadada ibis, turnstones, whimbrels, oystercatchers, basically anything that is on the ground or has a long beak. Best one has to be a scarlet ibis identified as a kiwi. What I find most odd though is not so much that people would confuse an ibis with a kiwi but that the photos are usually taken in the wild in places like Sydney, India, Africa, England -- and yet the photographers still assume the birds must be kiwi. It just shows how completely ignorant your average person is of the planet they live on.

Worst outcome of a misidentification must be the Department of Conservation worker who shot a takahe on Maud Island last year in mistake for a pukeko.

 

[Seatallen]

Buzzard = distant mountain rescue helicopter. Oh dear. The moment I realised I needed new glasses..

 

[DaveN]

Just thought I'd resurrect my old thread because of something my lad come out with yesterday whilst out on a walk. We had just about finished our walk when he said 'there's a Squirrel there' I looked up to see a Treecreeper spiralling up a tree and no Squirell in sight.

 

[tophillbirder]

Whilst at work as a post man heard this weird call like a great Tit but too persistent. Looked desperately as I believe I'm familiar with most common bird calls and eventually traced it to a little black box. Think it was a cat deterrent.

 

[Clive Watson]

on internet photo site Flickr there are dozens of photos labelled as kiwi that are actually e.g. weka, partridge, white ibis, hadada ibis, turnstones, whimbrels, oystercatchers, basically anything that is on the ground or has a long beak. Best one has to be a scarlet ibis identified as a kiwi. What I find most odd though is not so much that people would confuse an ibis with a kiwi but that the photos are usually taken in the wild in places like Sydney, India, Africa, England -- and yet the photographers still assume the birds must be kiwi. It just shows how completely ignorant your average person is of the planet they live on.

I've also noticed this phenomenon - so much so that I've been thinking of starting a thread dedicated to the subject. Flickr is absolutely riddled with thousands of truly staggering misidentifications. Best one I've found so far is a 'murrelet' which was actually an Inca Tern!

 

[colonelboris]

Whilst at work as a post man heard this weird call like a great Tit but too persistent. Looked desperately as I believe I'm familiar with most common bird calls and eventually traced it to a little black box. Think it was a cat deterrent.

On a work outing in Villars-sur-Ollon, I kept hearing this odd little flutey call. It seemed to be following us around, but I couldn't see it for the life of me. After about an hour, I found it was one of my colleagues' cameras - every time he turned it on, it would make this bird call...

 

[Clive A]

Just thought I'd resurrect my old thread because of something my lad come out with yesterday whilst out on a walk. We had just about finished our walk when he said 'there's a Squirrel there' I looked up to see a Treecreeper spiralling up a tree and no Squirell in sight.

A chip off the old block eh mate?

 

[Clive A]

....Seriously though, was in a hide the other day when 2 old couples said there was a Heron at the end of a spit. Turned out to be a Lapwing, but they were very reluctant to accept that.

 

[DaveN]

A chip off the old block eh mate?

Well I could mention a few classics from your good self from our many birding outings, but I don't want to embarrass you on a public forum :t:

 

[Paul Woolnough]

It is a teal not a mallard!

I met two retired birders yesterday, 11 April, at Strumpshaw Fen RSPB. A drake mallard flew from the ditch beside us. Teal said the wife. Husband looked at me. I said mallard and he agreed. As we carried on, in opposite directions she insisted to husband bird was a teal.

 

[Clive A]

:smoke:

Well I could mention a few classics from your good self from our many birding outings, but I don't want to embarrass you on a public forum :t:

Fair play mate.

 

[Peewit]

I had my daily walk today on my own around my favourite patch with my bins in hand.

I could see something of interest sitting on a branch full of blossom right above my head. A couple past by me with a dog in tow. The man said 'It is a Treecreeper'

Honestly some people! :gh:

 

[Clive A]

Love this thread it could go on for ever.

 

[John P]

A couple of weeks back in Keyhaven harbour a woman asked me:- "are those black headed gulls terns?"

eerrrm, no, they're Black-headed Gulls.

 

[sammyboy]

Don't know if this counts but had a look through some of my old threads recently and there was one where I was asking about an unidentified 'white goose', which of course was a farmyard goose! I felt a bit stupid when this was pointed out to me...

 

[teamsaint]

i misidentified a lapwing as a red kite today... but that's no-where near most of my worst....

pigeons are the biggest one, i reckon i must have misidentified about 30 species which turned out to be pigeons when they faced the other way, flew above the treeline etc...

 

[mike from ebbw]

My son once thought that a Grey Heron we saw flying over the pond was Petrie a Pterodon from the animated film `Land Before Time`.He was very young though!
Very recently I saw someone upload a pic of a Wheatear on another online gallery and titled it `Rock Nuthatch`!