May in Florida
Can you identify the bird in this picture? Fill out the form below and submit it to compete in this month's photo quiz. The first correct entry will receive a CMBO LensPen- "The superior lens cleaning system for fine optics". We will post the names of the winning entry along with all honorable mentions next month. All quiz birds are species that occur in New Jersey.
Please note: All fields are required for entry. You must be a young birder to compete in this quiz.
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March Young Birder's Photo Quiz Answer
I have to admit, we didn’t give you an easy quiz this month. And while the bird in flight is the focus of the quiz, this one is really more about using your surroundings to help aid your identification.
Starting with the bird in question, it is difficult to get much from this photo. What we can say is that the bird appears to be sparrow sized given the size of the stump in the background and the Brown-headed Cowbird in the lower right corner. Overall, the bird seems to be brownish as is evidenced by the colors that appear in the lighted part of the tail and wing. Field marks to be noted are the single bold white wing bar on each wing. This one field mark should help narrow things down quite a bit.
Given the relative size and structure of the bird we can rule out a number of families such as woodpeckers, blackbirds, thrushes, hawks, and in general any water bird or shorebird. Also taking into consideration that the image was taken in February in New Jersey helps us rule out many warbler species with wing bars and we are left with a general list of wrens, nuthatches and creepers, a couple of warbler species, sparrows and finches.
We can immediately remove creepers, wrens and nuthatches due to the presence of the bold wing bar. There are only three “expected” warblers in New Jersey in February, Yellow-rumped, Palm and Pine Warblers. Palm can also be eliminated due to the lack of wing bars and Yellow-rumped would show, well, a yellow rump. Pine Warbler is a possibility but should show two wing bars rather than one bold one.
This leaves us with sparrows and finches. But first let’s take a closer look at our surroundings to see if we can find anything that may help narrow down our choices. If we look in the lower right hand corner we can see a Brown-headed Cowbird (1) sitting on an exposed root of the stump in the photo, seemingly in a feeding position. Thinking about cowbirds in February, they are known to be feeder marauders with Red-winged Blackbirds and grackles. If we look in the background there seems to be a feeder set up (2), and possibly a bird bath (3). Lastly to clinch the fact we are looking at a feeder station, if we look just to the left of the stump we notice a small visible portion of a platform feeder (4).
Now that we have figured out a large part of the mystery we can think in terms of species that may come to a feeder in February. While Common Redpoll and White-winged Crossbill have been making appearances in New Jersey this winter they too can be ruled out by the fact that they have two wing bars. Along with the redpoll and crossbill, American Goldfinch and Pine Siskin do not fit this field mark pattern either. Lastly, Purple and House Finches do not have wing bars at all.
This leaves us with the “feeder” sparrows. Ruling out all feeder sparrows without any type of wing bar leaves us with White-throated and House Sparrows as the typical winter sparrows that you might find at your feeder. Other birds that fit the category are White-crowned, Chipping and American Tree Sparrows. All but one of these species can be eliminated due to having weak or more than one wing bar. Only the House Sparrow shows this one bold white wing bar in the median coverts.
As we know, House Sparrows are often quite common at winter feeding stations, sometimes to the dismay of the birder as they can take over and monopolize the feeders by shear numbers. On the positive side, the frenzy of feeding that comes with House Sparrows can often draw other hungry birds into the feeding station. In fact, wintering Dickcissel can often be found with House Sparrow flocks.
This image of the CMBO Northwood Center’s feeding station was taken with the Wingscapes BirdCam by placing the camera on the ground. We have included the full image captured (with the Photo Quiz image as an inset) for you above.
Monthly Prize Winner
(Both winners this month correctly identified one species in the quiz photo.)
Corey Husic of Kunkletown, PA
Brendan Fogarty of Hempstead, NY