Good Afternoon Everyone.
Ok first off I need to
apologies for bird number 3. I tried to I.D it myself on Thursday night and realized it is almost impossible with such a small photo! When I posted I knew what it was so I never even thought about someone looking at this bird for the first time!
It was really unfair one everyone and I apologies if I have cause someone frustration and wanting to give up on the challenge. Lizet will do a much better challenge!
I still think it is a cool platform to learn. I will do my best at explaining the results……
Having said that
15 mites still entered the challenge, and thank you all for the participation. Makes the writing up of the answers worth it!
That gives
#40 an average result of:
68.677% . Still not bad considering the really tough challenge.
1 mite scored 4/10
3 mites scored 5/10
1 mite scored 6/10
4 mites scored 7/10
4 mites scored 8/10
2 mites scored 9/10.
No one with 100% this time….
Here we go for Challenge #40:1.
(15/15) Cape Weaver. No problems here. Everyone nail this guy.
2.
15/15 Greater Blue Eared Starling. I thought this one would catch some of you but you guys are all very observant! Well done.
3.
1/15 Greater Sand Plover. Ok my apologies on this pic. It was very difficult. Everyone who said Lesser Sand Plover can give themselves a pat on the back. It wasn’t your fault. Unfortunately the differences between Greater and Lesser are in the minor details: Allow me to expand on this: (Info gleamed from *Identification, taxonomy and distribution of Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers by Erik Hirschfeld, C.S Roselaar and Hadoram Shirihai*). *Seperating these two species is very tricky, especially if one hasn’t seen the species in real life as some of the sub-species have morphological similarities. The most important field characteristics to look out for are: Bill shape; wing bar; sub terminal tail-bar; and length of nail on bill. All other features can only really be seen as supporting evidence. It became clear to me at this point that I had just posted the worst possible photo to illustrate these points! Epic Fail… Generally the Greater Sand plover looks more bulky than Lesser Sand Plover which is a more delicate bird. Usually GSP has greenish grey legs and LSP dark black.GSP has a heavier and longer bill that tapers to a sharp point, and LSP has a more blunt tip and shorter bill. A clenching feature that I saw on this bird which was seen in Cape st. François was in flight and I didn’t use that pic…. Nough said. In flight the white primary bar on the wing bulges out to the end in GSP and is a straight line in LSP. This is a crucial difference besides the fact that GSP the toes stick out behind the tail and in LSP they end with the tail. Due to copy write violations I didn’t want to risk showing other peoples photo’s as I don’t have a LSP pic! But I have added the GSP pic for interest sake!
4.
9/15 Caspian Plover. I see this bird caused more problems than excepted. From the picture the bird does give the feel of a large size with it’s long legs. The yellowish colour of the legs was a little misleading as I saw the bird in early November and It was possibly still changing into full Non Br. plumage. The big white supercilium and head length pointed bill are very important I.D’s. A subtle clue also is that the feathers on its back, (mantle feathers) give a scaled appearance due to the buffy edging!
5.
14/15 Black Crowned Night Heron Juv. Straight forward I think.
6.
7/15 Lesser Kestrel F. WOW when I posted this pic I didn’t think it would cause so many headaches! I can see why everyone else said Red Footed Falcon. Really thanks for trying to get me one more Lifer!
I think the biggest key here is the little bit of wing sticking out on the left showing a brown wing and not dark grey! A visible malar stripe and lighter chest distinguish it from Red Footed falcon Female.
7.
15/15 Dark Chanting Goshawk. Well done! No one confused it with SPCG! Impressive.
8.
7/15 Bateleur Juv. This was a surprise. Most people said hooded vulture here. I can see the resemblance with the possible two toned under-wing, but this is where the resemblance stops. The very short tail and the feathers on the head should exclude brown vultures in this case. A hooded vulture would be devoid of feathers till the neck region. The Pale skin in this case is classic Juv Bateleur. They only become adults after 7-8 years. The head is also to bulky for a hooded vulture.
11/15 Tawny Eagle. Ok the brown Eagle complex is always a difficult one so congrats if you I.D this as an eagle due to the feathered Tarsis and big bill with dark eye color. The light color and slight streaking on the breast, combined with light colored secondary’s and primaries exclude most of the rarer eagles in the brown eagle complex. The Juv Steppe Eagle would have a white line between the underwing coverts and the flight feathers. This bird also shows a somewhat light panel between primaries and secondary’s.
9.
9/15 Pale crowned Cisticola. I was surprised with your answers here. Very well done. A big clue here was the barbed wire fence! If you noticed the size of the barbs compared to the bird you would have known you are looking for a very small bird! You needed to arrive at the cisticola family, the rest is easy!
Again the fence is the key. Look at the short tail of the bird. This already reduces the cisticola family to 6 options. Namely the short tailed with streaked back group of Cisticolas. The dark lores and very pale crown are the clinchers here as this bird was in breeding plumage.
Well done to everyone and all the best for Lizet’s challenge.
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