Quiz #1.
Hey everyone. It's Monday, and people are already feeling weird...so why not put your bird skills to the test? Take a shot at today's quiz birds, and leave a comment with your votes. No hints on this one, and no prizes this time beyond moderate glory and narcissistic smugness...but does the birder even need anything else?
Lovingly Yours,
Felonious Jive (The Great Ornithologist)
Quiz #2.
Quiz #3.
Quiz #4.
Quiz #5. Good luck!
should I comment? this is awkward for sure.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing it: CAVI, HAFL, LTJA, ATFL, HERGxGWGU. Thanks for the entertaining break from thesis work!
DeleteYou may have the legs of a stilt, but you have the heart of a lion.
DeleteI'm changing ATFL to BCFL because of an id-positive photo of a BCFL perched on a suspiciously familiar-looking wire fence in your most recent post.
DeleteI am beginning to think that birders are developing an acute phobia of public misidentifications. How embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteI might be the #7 birder of the park I live next to, which is in a suburb of Minneapolis. I'm pretty certain that I've never seen any of these birds.
Delete1. makes me think Vireo, but it's not Blue-Headed or Yellow-throated or Red-eyed or Warbling. Yellow edges on primaries made consider kinglets for a second, but nothing else is right.
2. has way too dark a chest to be any flycatcher I know.
3. I've never had to worry about Jaegers.
4. Yellow isn't bright enough to be a Great Crested.
5. A gull, but not a Ring-Billed.
How did I miss this, is there a make up quiz?
ReplyDeleteAnother opportunity for public shaming, and to force the GBRS to do more paperwork!
I'm going to take this quiz Slumdog Millionaire style--with convenient, bullshit anecdotes.
1: Cassin's Vireo: I know this because once, when all the rest of mankind had abandoned me to the screeching and yet silent hell of my own mind, after I had been writhing in madness and torment, being buried alive inside my own head, grasping for any sign of order or purpose in the universe...such a bird came to me. It flew onto a branch nearby, showing the same yellow flanks, slim white wing bars and notable white primary outlines. This bird was the sign. I called out to it, hoping it would turn and speak to me. It never did. As it flew away it merely tweeted, "Fuck you, buddy," in the interrupted manner of most Vireo vocalizations.
2: Dusky Flycatcher: Only saying this because it looks like a Hammond's--if a little less sporting of the Hammond's vest--to me but Stiltlegs said Hammond's already and I don't want to be a copy cat. Plus, it's perching in lower brushy stuff, which seems to push the stats in favor of DUFL.
3. Parasitic Jaeger: Once this really nice guy bumped into me at a bar. He was wearing a tank top and was very gregarious. He had so many compliments to pay out, he was a great listener, just a real solid bro. He started ordering Jaeger shots, at first with beer and then just by themselves. I didn't even like the stuff but hey, he was stoking the ego. More and more rounds came and then, finally, he revealed that he just, like, couldn't find his wallet, even though it was a matching velcro wallet that came with his board shorts. I had to foot the bill, of course, and he never reimbursed. This bird looks a lot like that parasitic, jaeger drinking asshole.
4: Brown-crested Flycatcher: That bird's tail is too long, in relation to its body, for Dusky-capped, plus this seems to be a low-elevation photo. It's too yellow and darker gray, just generally colorful, for ATFL. It isn't Great-crested because that's the worst myiarchus flycatcher and I know you'd never post of photo of them unless it was for ID explanations. After completing an arduous journey, one which costs the lives of many good men, I finally arrived at the Fount of Eternal Wisdom (which it turns out is actually in Salt Lake City, making our bloody journey into the heart of Congo rather unnecessary), torn and tormented, yearning for omniscience. A deep, James Early Jones type voice issued forth from the bubbling ooze: "Speak thy question and let you heart, and mind, be fulfilled. But know that this can be done once, and only once in your lifetime, or you will be torn into a thousand pieces and scattered across the universe."
"Tell me the most important thing in the universe," I responded.
"Brown-crested Flycatcher's always look left when they're the 4th bird in a post," it responded.
"Ok fountain, but that's kind lame. Can I get a bonus knowledge?"
"Sure fine just go away after, geez. I'm a very busy Fount."
"Bullshit, you're just a lazy omniscient Fount!"
"Either way, this is your last gift of wisdom! When you've got a big, pink-legged mottly brown and white gull with pink at the base of the bill, it's a Herring x Glaucous-Winged hybrid 96% of the time."
5: Herring/Glaucous-winged Gull (see above)
Best quiz response ever.
DeletePlease interview this dude.
Delete