Phantoms no more, a pair of Northern Bobwhites were photographed by users peteinkeyworth and birdbrain early this morning. Here’s the first shot, taken by peteinkeyworth at 6:10 a.m.:
That’s the male, with the more contrast-y head markings, on the lower right, and the female on the left.
Here’s the tightest closeup that they got, taken by birdbrain at 6:19:
Congratulations on getting some great shots of the game’s newest bird!
A bird that’s new for me with CONE Welder is the Bronzed Cowbird. Like the other icterids in the system, the males and females look somewhat different, though with the Bronzed Cowbird the difference isn’t as obvious as it is with the other icterids we’ve been seeing.
Here’s a shot of a male that I took today:
And here’s a shot of a female I took a few minutes later:
The female has the same pattern of black on the head and back, with lighter plumage below that, though the female is more drab than the male.
As with many icterids, eye color is an important field mark for the Bronzed Cowbird. Both sexes have a really striking reddish iris; birdbrain got this great shot of a male glaring at the camera on May 16:
Something that confused me the first few times I saw these birds was that they don’t always show the puffed-up head and shoulders that Sibley shows in his illustration (he calls it a “ruff”). They do show it a lot, though, as in that photo of the male at the top of this post, and in this cool shot taken by txbird on May 10:
Finally, here’s a good comparison shot I got back on May 4. I think this shows a male Bronzed Cowbird in the middle, with a female on either side. (I’m not sure about the identity of the other two birds in the background.) Besides the difference in their markings, you can see that there’s a bit of a size difference between the sexes, too; the male is a little larger.
Craig posted a new item to his personal blog mentioning that robins are still singing. He included this photo of what I think is a female robin:
I’ve always really loved the American Robin’s song; it ranks up there as one of my favorites.
Probably my favorite thing about the CONE system is the way amazing things just all of a sudden show up in the camera. You’re half paying attention while someone else is driving, and all of a sudden — whoa! What’s that?
Case in point: I glanced over at the screen a few minutes ago and saw this guy:
Audubon’s Oriole is listed as “accidental” on Selma Glasscock’s checklist of Welder birds, but it’s listed in the CONE Welder list of neotropical “species of interest”, so apparently it’s been showing up in the refuge more frequently of late. Anyway, I don’t think there’s any doubt that that’s what this was.
The bird turned sideways at the end and showed a good view of its wings and tail, but I didn’t get a shot of that, unfortunately. I’m waiting to see the shots other users got once the 1-hour embargo is over; I’ll post them here if there are other good ones.
Woohoo! New birds are fun. 
Update: Lots more shots were taken by users birderbf, vireo, and rafa, with birderbf getting the honors of the first shot:
(Smart, by the way, getting that “insurance” shot quickly, before trying to zoom in.) I also liked this shot that rafa got at the end of the sequence:
I haven’t had much time to spend in CONE Welder the last week or so, but I’ve been trying to skim over the images that have been taken when I get a chance. But I overlooked this shot that was taken on May 18 at 12:48 p.m. by birderbf until rafa pointed it out to me in an email today:
Check out that dove in the lower right. I’m pretty sure that’s a White-winged Dove, which would be a new species for the game. Currently the image doesn’t have enough IDs to be classified as such. But take a look, and if you agree that that’s what it is, go vote so we can get it officially classified.
In the meantime, congratulations birderbf on a great shot, and thanks, rafa, for pointing it out to me.
Update: And now it’s classified as a White-winged Dove. Hooray!
Here’s a shot I’ve been wondering about for a few days now. vanilla took it at 9:00 a.m. on May 15:
She posted in an accompanying comment, “Bird on left zipped in and out before I could close in.” So, what might those birds be?
Based on the posture, and what you can see of the markings, I’m leaning toward the bird on the left being either a swallow or some kind of flycatcher. Looking through the checklist of Welder birds, there are several possibilities for each. To my mind, the question ends up turning largely on scale: If that bird on the left is relatively small, then I’d have to think it’s a swallow. If it’s somewhat larger, then I’d have to think it’s a flycatcher of some kind. And that means that the bird on the right ends up being an important clue. If we could identify it, we’d have a much better idea of the size of the bird on the left.
Unfortunately, I’m not getting any strong feeling at all from that bird on the right. Color-wise I could see it being an Inca Dove, but the tail (to the extent you can see it) seems too short, and the legs seem too long. I could also imagine it being a female Red-winged Blackbird or a female Brown-headed Cowbird; if I had to pick something, that might be where I’d go. In any of those cases, that would make the bird on the left swallow-sized rather than flycatcher-sized.
I’d like to find a shot of a known bird in that same tree so I could answer that scale question; maybe I’ll see if I can do that during the day tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m interested in hearing what you all think about this shot.
Update: Here’s a shot I took a few minutes ago. It is lower down in the same tree, and I believe it is at pretty much the same zoom setting, and hence the same scale, as the shot above. That’s a male Great-tailed Grackle, which I would think puts my two mystery birds at swallow-and-female-Brown-headed-Cowbird size, rather than at flycatcher-and-larger-mystery-bird size.
Here are some of my favorite non-bird shots taken in the last few days.
rafa got this shot of a mama Javelina and what looks like a fairly young piglet:
achadamaia was one of several users to get a shot of this cute little rodent (not sure about the species; it doesn’t appear to be a choice in the available IDs):
Finally, user califas got this very cool close-up of an unidentified insect:
Any bug experts on the blog want to help with an ID?
Blackbirds and grackles feature prominently in the birds we see in the CONE Welder camera. They’re pretty straightforward from an identification standpoint, but it’s important to realize that the males and females look quite different from each other. There are four icterid species that we see a lot of in the game currently, but to a casual observer they can look like eight different kinds of birds (at least).
Some of us were chatting in the game the other day about how few of the female Red-winged Blackbirds were being successfully identified. I remember how, when I was twelve and visiting Florida for the first time, I spent days wondering what those “sparrows” were that were always hanging around with the Red-winged Blackbirds. It wasn’t until I looked at my grandmother’s field guide that I realized they were actually female blackbirds.
Here are some shots of female Red-winged Blackbirds taken in the last few days. These are by users rafa, achadamaia, and avatar99, respectively:
They’re superficially sparrow-like in terms of color and markings, but that long blackbird beak is a dead giveaway.
Even the male Red-winged Blackbirds can be confusing at times. When they flash their epaulettes they’re easy, of course, as in this beautiful shot by txbird that I posted the other day:
But they can hide and reveal those shoulder patches. When they cover up there’s often only a narrow strip to help identify them, as in this shot by whereismyrobot:
There’s still another look that Red-winged Blackbirds can have; check out this shot of an immature male taken by widget:
Don’t look down your nose at those Red-winged Blackbirds just because they’re always around. They’re more interesting to look at than you might think.
There were some great shots of the Wild Turkey today. Here are my favorites, by vanilla and kryptonkay, respectively:
I really like these two shots txbird got this morning of a male Great-tailed Grackle showing off:
