[Maine-birds] quiz photo -- episodic no. 2

Hi folks,

Culling my bad photos, I found one that I think makes a good quiz. Learning the shapes of birds is one of the keys to skilled bird identification. Hawks, seabirds, swallows, swifts (more than we appreciate), all have species specific profiles. These shapes are not always easy to discern or describe because of perspective or brevity of view. Plumage patterns are important then as an independent check on what we think we see in shapes. A lot of the touted shape characters are not reliable because one cannot independently assess or measure the characters, and the shape is so subject to distortion by various conformations of the body or the angle at which one sees the bird. With that in mind, I offer this quiz photo of a common Maine bird that allows one to test both knowledge of flight profile and distinctive plumage patterns:
http://flic.kr/p/eJ1DrY

It is a bad photo, but that's part of the game.

Louis Bevier
Fairfield

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