Giving wuap the bird - the official bird ID thread

[Jeff Lebowski]

Let’s get this baby started. I already know what this is, but give it a shot anyway. Took this photo this morning.

[wuapinmon]

Let’s get this baby started. I already know what this is, but give it a shot anyway. Took this photo this morning.

Lucky you with a Great Horned Owl! They're much harder to find out here. You hear them all the time, but rarely have I seen them as easily as in Utah.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Lucky you with a Great Horned Owl! They're much harder to find out here. You hear them all the time, but rarely have I seen them as easily as in Utah.

Notice the bunny for breakfast?

[Northwestcoug]

Solid thread title.

[smokymountainrain]

Let’s get this baby started. I already know what this is, but give it a shot anyway. Took this photo this morning.

definitely an owl. boom, bitches!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Solid thread title.

Doing everything I can to keep wuap around.

[Clark Addison]

Notice the bunny for breakfast?

The bunny was the only thing I noticed for a while, and kept thinking "That's a funny looking bird"

I know nothing about bird identification, but one thing I like about where I live is there are a ton of raptors around. It is very common when I am out on a walk in the evening to see hawks or owls swooping around very close to me (but I guess not great horned owls. If Wuap isn't seeing them where he is, I doubt I am here).

The other day, as I was pulling into my neighborhood, there was a hawk on the side of the road, jumping around on and off a rabbit. The rabbit wasn't visibly injured but looked exhausted, so I think it didn't have long.

We also have a ton of Turkey Buzzards whenever we get any roadkill (I guess they are actually Turkey Vultures, but everyone here calls them buzzards). I htink they are cool but my dog is terrified of them if we walk too close by.

[wuapinmon]

The bunny was the only thing I noticed for a while, and kept thinking "That's a funny looking bird"

I know nothing about bird identification, but one thing I like about where I live is there are a ton of raptors around. It is very common when I am out on a walk in the evening to see hawks or owls swooping around very close to me (but I guess not great horned owls. If Wuap isn't seeing them where he is, I doubt I am here).

The other day, as I was pulling into my neighborhood, there was a hawk on the side of the road, jumping around on and off a rabbit. The rabbit wasn't visibly injured but looked exhausted, so I think it didn't have long.

We also have a ton of Turkey Buzzards whenever we get any roadkill (I guess they are actually Turkey Vultures, but everyone here calls them buzzards). I htink they are cool but my dog is terrified of them if we walk too close by.

Odds are that you have Great Horned Owls (GHOW) all around you, though Barred Owls and Eastern Screech Owls are more common. The first GHOW I saw in South Carolina, I was by myself at daybreak walking a causeway through an eighty-year-old abandoned gravel quarry, and I saw this massive shape drop out of a loblolly and completely silently fly away from me a a break-neck speed. It took me a couple of seconds after being startled to realize what it was. Here's a link to a photo of one I found in Charleston County at Patriot's Point when I birding with some friends. My buddy Craig got a decent right-at-dusk photo of it. https://ebird.org/checklist/S74105901

I have heard them many, many times, especially in the hour before dawn. I find it easier to hear them in the winter. In Utah, especially Washington County, if you head out towards the old way to Mesquite (Beaver Dam/Lytle Ranch area), they roost on hillsides/cliff faces right by the road. In June, especially, you'll find two adults and up to three juveniles all perching and hooting before dawn in several spots along that highway. The absence of large trees makes their perches far more conspicuous that around here where you never see them if they go into a live oak or a magnolia.

This time of year, we have several species of resident and winter resident hawks around. Red-tailed, Red-shouldered are buteos, Sharp-Shinned and Cooper's are accipiters. There are bald eagles around near water; you might find an osprey, but most of them are in warmer climes. We get 5-10 golden eagles a year in South Carolina, mostly on the coasts or in the mountains. I still haven't seen one in South Carolina (or anywhere east of the Mississippi). We also have kestrels and merlins around, both falcons.

We have two kinds of vultures (which people call buzzards, colloquially). Turkey vultures fly with their wings in the V/dihedral shape and rarely flap. The trailing edges up to 1/2 to 2/3 of their underwings appear glossy/silvery. Black vultures fly with their wings more flat, are smaller, typically soar higher in "kettles" of vultures, and flap their wings far more often than turkey vultures. The end tips of BLVU wings are very silvery and can be seen with the naked eye.

[Katy Lied]

Kettles, you say? Learn something every day.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Wuap, do you have feeders in your yard?

We started about year ago. About 22 species have shown up so far.

[wuapinmon]

Wuap, do you have feeders in your yard?

We started about year ago. About 22 species have shown up so far.

Yes, I have so many that my oldest told me that I had made the house look like an assisted-living community. I've seen 122 species in my yard (though 2 of those are from when I started and seem unlikely, but I can't remember enough details to eliminate them). lifelist 1.JPG
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Kettles, you say? Learn something every day.

Yes, a kettle is the high, swirling group of soaring raptors. It just means that there are good thermals there, not that they are circling something dead/dying. If they smell something, they go to it and scarf it down quickly. The turkey vulture is absolutely amazing for not using energy unncessarily. They can smell rotting flesh up to 7 miles away. Black vultures are as keen, but they fly higher and watch where turkey vultures go, and piggyback off them. It's common to see a loan turkey vulture, but black vultures are usually in groups. Frankfort, KY is absolutely FULL of black vultures in the winter time.

[Pelado]

Yes, a kettle is the high, swirling group of soaring raptors. It just means that there are good thermals there, not that they are circling something dead/dying. If they smell something, they go to it and scarf it down quickly. The turkey vulture is absolutely amazing for not using energy unncessarily. They can smell rotting flesh up to 7 miles away. Black vultures are as keen, but they fly higher and watch where turkey vultures go, and piggyback off them. It's common to see a loan turkey vulture, but black vultures are usually in groups. Frankfort, KY is absolutely FULL of black vultures in the winter time.

Sure, but what about the birds?

[Jeff Lebowski]

122!!!

Holy cow, that is amazing.

[wuapinmon]

I should add that on my feeders, I've seen:

Ruby-throated hummingbirds, Tufted Titmice, Chickadees, Siskins, all three nuthatches; red-bellied, downy, hairy, pileated, and northern flicker woodpeckers; yellow-rumped warblers (grape jelly), baltimore orioles (cut citrus), cardinals to infinity, american goldfinches, house finches, purple finches, carolina and house wrens; chipping, white-throated, and fox sparrows; pine warblers, mourning doves, blue jays, starlings, house sparrows; mockingbirds, catbirds, and thrashers (suet cages); cowbirds, fish and american crows, bluebirds (meal worms), towhees, red-winged blackbirds, and dark-eyed juncos. Most of the sparrows eat underneath the feeders from what the others drop, doves too. I have had sharp-shinned hawks and northern harriers "take" songbirds on my feeders. So, how many is that? 39?

[wuapinmon]

You can check out my eBird profile here: https://ebird.org/profile/NDgyNDM5

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