Are you a birder? I need your help. I’ve been uploading photos that I have taken of birds to my website for a new section called appropriately enough Birds. In the course of organizing the photos, I’ve found I have some photos of birds that I never identified, mainly because I could never figure out what they were. So if you know birds, could you help a fellow, but admittedly very much novice, birder out? If you can identify any of the birds, please let me know by leaving me a comment. I have included the date and location the photo was taken with each photo. THANK YOU!
Mystery bird 1: Gull, I’m assuming a juvenile, but what species? Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, June 27, 2008 [update: this has been tentatively IDed as a great black-backed gull]
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, June 27, 2008
Mystery bird 2: Gull, I’m assuming a juvenile, but what species? Bodie Island, North Carolina, June 28, 2008
Bodie Island, North Carolina, June 28, 2008
Mystery bird 3: My best guess is this is a semipalmated sandpiper. There was a small flock of them. My main concern with this guess is that I took the photo June 30, 2012 on Caladesi Island in Florida, and this seems a bit early for a semipalmated sandpiper to be in Florida.
Mystery bird 4: I’m at a loss with this one. Some exotic game bird perhaps? Taken September 23, 2011 near the Nature Conservancy’s Great Salt Lake Shoreland north of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mystery bird 5: I’m guessing juvenile red-naped sapsucker. Taken July 13, 2011 at Kootenai Falls near Libby, Montana.
1. adult Great Black-backed Gull, although i cannot tell size and it looks a little different to me.
2. juvenal Great Black-backed Gull
3. Semipalmated Sandpipers. They sometimes migrate late, or not at all.
4. juvenal Ring-necked Pheasants
5 and 6. juvenal Red-naped or Red-breasted Sapsuckers