David,
The question about notched tail is interesting. Many photographs appear to show a pronounced notch in the tail, while others do not. I wouldn’t discount the possibility that some of these are authentic notches. Your own illustration in the field guide appears to show a notch as well.
You’re right Matthew, my mistake. The tail is notched on bluebirds. From looking at photos just now it seems that the notch is bigger on Mountain than on Eastern, and on both of them it’s an unusual shape with only the central tail feathers much shorter than the rest. I found a good photo of Eastern here http://www.nemesisbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Eastern-Bluebird-male-2.jpg. I’ll update the quiz and the answer and try to cover up my error ;-). Thanks for pointing it out.
Little Blue Penguin…? Very funny, David! Seriously, I’ve been following your blog for a long time, and love the detailed discussions on difficult species pairs (and groups). Goldeneyes, and Scoters come to mind as being particularly useful discussions. In fact, I just showed your Scoter illustrations in my class as preparation for our upcoming trip to the San Mateo County coast this weekend. Very timely! I’m hoping when you release the second edition of your guide, some of this structural material will make it’s way into the pages. Field marks are important, of course, but GISS is increasingly important for many birders, and worth the effort to include. Not many guide include such material, and I think it would further set your book apart from the others. All the best, Matthew
David,
The question about notched tail is interesting. Many photographs appear to show a pronounced notch in the tail, while others do not. I wouldn’t discount the possibility that some of these are authentic notches. Your own illustration in the field guide appears to show a notch as well.
You’re right Matthew, my mistake. The tail is notched on bluebirds. From looking at photos just now it seems that the notch is bigger on Mountain than on Eastern, and on both of them it’s an unusual shape with only the central tail feathers much shorter than the rest. I found a good photo of Eastern here http://www.nemesisbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Eastern-Bluebird-male-2.jpg. I’ll update the quiz and the answer and try to cover up my error ;-). Thanks for pointing it out.
Woohoo! Can’t believe I got the feather questions right without having to look them up!
Little Blue Penguin…? Very funny, David! Seriously, I’ve been following your blog for a long time, and love the detailed discussions on difficult species pairs (and groups). Goldeneyes, and Scoters come to mind as being particularly useful discussions. In fact, I just showed your Scoter illustrations in my class as preparation for our upcoming trip to the San Mateo County coast this weekend. Very timely! I’m hoping when you release the second edition of your guide, some of this structural material will make it’s way into the pages. Field marks are important, of course, but GISS is increasingly important for many birders, and worth the effort to include. Not many guide include such material, and I think it would further set your book apart from the others. All the best, Matthew
this is great fun; the explanations are very helpful.
Very helpful. Thanks for putting these quizzes together. Love your work.
This is really helpful..