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

Some people have had difficulty with the link I sent in the original message. For most the link will work, but depending on one's browser settings, the new (and atrociously redesigned) Flickr might not work.

This link should work:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrbevier/9008056790/sizes/l/

Many have sent guesses already, and I'd love to hear more. I'm most interested in what confusion species come up; so don't be shy. I don't get these quizzes myself often, and I'm making no judgement of one's skills. It's not the same as being in the field. Good luck! I'll post an answer in about a week.

Louis

On Jun 10, 2013, at 11:48 AM, Louis Bevier <lrbevier@colby.edu> wrote:

> 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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