The Networked Bird Observatory Blog

Of the 14 legitimate bird species that have been identified in the game so far, there are 3 that I haven’t taken a picture of (or even seen through the camera, or scored points on by being one of the first three to enter an ID): Lesser Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, and Golden-crowned Sparrow. Here’s a few thoughts on each of them.

Lesser Goldfinch:

These have been caught by the camera on two occasions. First, around 1:30 on April 23, 2007, a pair of them was photographed first on the ball feeder, then on the house feeder. Here’s the best shot from that appearance, taken by jpmiddle:

Then, at 1:15 on May 1, 2007, a single male was seen on the house feeder. Here’s the best shot from that appearance, taken by oac:

Both appearances were around the same time of day (early afternoon). So that’s probably a good time of day to pay attention to the house feeder.

Song Sparrow:

A single Song Sparrow has been photographed and identified at the feeders on three separate occasions since the game started (but see below). The first time was around 7:20 p.m. on April 21, when patti got two photos on the house feeder. Here’s the better of the two:

Two days later, on April 23, one was seen on the house feeder for a few minutes, which was long enough for 8 photos to be recorded. The best of them was this one, taken by pabirdguy at 7:27 p.m.:

Finally, on May 3 at 7:46 p.m., three photos of a single individual were taken, showing the bird on the ball feeder and the suet feeder. The best shots were this one, by empid:

And this one, by birdsmoker:

In all these cases the bird was seen relatively late in the day. So that seems like a good time to keep an eye open for it.

Note: There actually is at least one, and possibly two, more times when a Song Sparrow was photographed with the system. The first was during the site’s private beta test, before the public unveiling. We know that beta test took place because a screenshot from it appeared in Wired magazine. From Go Birding With Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, we see this image, which was recorded by user bryce (with a comment by user patti) at 8:58 a.m. on March 25:

The other case is that of the infamous photo #2514, which has remained in “disputed” status longer than any other photo in the system, and seems destined to stay that way. It was taken April 26 at 8:49 a.m. by robmattles. Here it is:

The reason this seems destined to remain disputed is that it exposes a fundamental philosophical difference in how you identify the images on the site. If you go strictly based on what the image looks like (which I think is an entirely defensible position to take), it really looks like a Savannah Sparrow. But if you factor in the possibility of distortion and lighting effects, and the general difficulty of identifying a bird from a momentary glimpse of a small part of its body, and (here’s the dicey part) the likelihood that a particular species was in that particular place at that particular time, I think a case can be made that that’s actually a Song Sparrow. But I really don’t know, and don’t expect I ever will.

Anyway, evenings seem like the best time to look for the Song Sparrow, but apparently they sometimes show up in the mornings as well. But they’re shy, and tend not to stay long. So if you see one, take that snapshot now, and worry about moving the camera for a better picture only after you’ve done so.

Golden-crowned Sparrow:

The Golden-crowned Sparrow is currently the “rarest” bird in the system, having been photographed only two times since the game officially started (and both times by the same user). User patti, who commented on bryce’s photo of the Song Sparrow during the beta test, snapped a photo of a Golden-crowned Sparrow in the ball feeder on April 21 at 7:28 p.m. And the day before that, on April 20 at 2:54 p.m., she took the very first photo in the game, image #1, and it was this beauty:

I have a theory that it isn’t a coincidence that this great shot is the first one in the game. I think whoever was in the position of deciding when to end the beta test and make the site public said to him or herself, that’s a keeper. We’re purging the older data to make the game live, but we’re keeping that one.

There’s at least one additional time a Golden-crowned was seen with the system. Again, this presumably happened during the private beta test. We know about it because of the screen capture that is part of the site’s tutorial. Here it is:

We can see that we’ve got a Golden-crowned in the ball feeder, and that the time is 7:08 p.m., though we don’t know the date. We can also see a list of the five users logged in at the time, all of whom, I’m assuming, were participants in the beta test: patti (who was the user logged in on the machine where the screen capture was made, and had been logged in the longest of any current user at that time, as indicated by her name being at the top of the list and in black), goldberg, bryce, dezhen song, and erin. The other thing that’s interesting to me about that shot is that you can see that they’re using a slightly different panorama image; it shows the full width of the deck rail, not just the left and right ends of it like the current panorama. And we can see a little piece of another deck, or something, next door to the right; the current panorama cuts that off.

Again, evenings at the feeders look like the best time to see the Golden-crowned Sparrow (but don’t forget patti’s great shot at 3:00 on the lefthand part of the deck).

I guess it could just be that birds were moving through and didn’t stick around, or that I just need to be patient. But I almost get the feeling that, at least with the Song Sparrow and the Golden-crowned Sparrow, the birds might be staying away from the camera more these days than they did in the early going. My theory about that is that maybe the increased number of participants in the game since the beta test means that the camera is being driven hither and yon a lot more than it used to be, and maybe that creates enough movement and/or noise to keep the shy species away. If that’s true, time might correct the problem, either through the birds getting more used to it, or the players getting over their tendency to spend all day panning all over the landscape.

So that’s it: My big three species, the ones I know are out there, and would love to get a shot of, but haven’t so far.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 8:41 am and is filed under Records and Rarities, The Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.