10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2017

For me, the key to identifying the difference, comes with the banding on the tail, and when a bit closer, the yellow legs and cere. The tail bands on the adult birds consist of three bands with the third, or lower band much wider and cleaner white.

Tail Banding 40

Tail Banding Turkey Birds Mexico 40

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2021

It seems the bird I saw is a first-winter one, at least according to the HBW description: “First-winter has head white apart from dark brown mottling on crown and nape; upperwing-coverts extensively marked brown; black subterminal tail-band; dark bare parts.”

Birds 105

Birds Tail Banding Species Animal 105

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

An American birder might consider a hybrid with the size (actually, slightly bigger) of a Band-tailed Pigeon and the wing pattern of a White-winged Dove. Add a broad, dark tail band and you pretty much have a woodpigeon.

Feral 63

Feral Tail Banding Birds Turtles 63

10,000 Birds

JULY 29, 2017

The dreadful screeching put me in mind of a young bird crying to be fed, but the juveniles are much lighter underneath with dark streaking, two broad tail bands and paler, scaled crests. The call sounded as though a piece of bodywork was rubbing against the wheel of an approaching lorry. The mate did not look impressed.

Eagles 45

Eagles Tail Banding Birds Reptiles 45

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2012

It’s 90% Broad-wings, paddle-shaped with crisp tail bands, but there are a handful of Sharp-shinned Hawks mixed in too, looking for all the world like the flying gavels described in every hawk-watching tome. Eventually these specks below the horizon coalesce into funnels of birds above the horizon.

South Carolina 83

South Carolina Birds Tail Banding North Carolina 83

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2011

What can you notice about the tail of this bird? The uneven tail bands are usually a dead giveaway for Coop’s. It is hard to distinguish this Sharpie’s head projection, but the view of the tail is good enough. The edge of the retrices look to be a sharp 90 dg.

Birds 95

Birds Tail Banding Hamburgers Philadelphia 95

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2011

From the tail band, it looks like an immature. Skimmers, of course, use that laterally flattened mandible to cut the water and leave a trail of light–intriguing to small fish at dusk. When the fish rise to investigate, a split-second snap of the bill captures a meal. It’s a three-year seagle.

Florida 58

Florida Ducks Tail Banding Wildlife 58

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2012

.” There are the classic field marks, size of head and shape of tail, but, we are told, never rely on just one or two features! In addition to differences in tail bands, streaking on juveniles, and flight style, the authors offer behavioral clues which I find fascinating and much easier to remember than width and color of tail bands.

Birds 104

Birds North America Bald Eagle Eagles 104

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2014

Wright and Small offer additional material, illustrating anatomical parts, like wing stripe, tail band, and rump, that are used in the species accounts. Most field guides show photos or diagrams of birds with arrows pointing to the eye line, primaries, secondaries, etc.

New Jersey 103

New Jersey Birds Species Sparrows 103

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2014

Roth depicts a brown, tail-banded, evil-eyed hawk with an open-eyed parrot held upside-down, wings spread, in its claws). Special nesting boxes are built in the wild, a wild chick damages its wing in the nest, (it is rebuilt). Hurricane Hugo rips through the island in 1989. A second aviary is created.

Puerto Rico 99

Puerto Rico Parrots Birds New York City 99

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

Yet, it is amazing how many identification features are evident in his bird pictures—the fire-red head, streaked back, white wing bars, and white-tipped tertials of the Western Tanager, the white tail band on the Eastern Kingbird, the black-bordered white eyebrow of the Red-eyed Vireo.

Birds 68

Birds Betty Crocker 2008 2007 68