Saturday, August 4, 2007

I Need Help

You would think this bird would be easy to identify. Wrong! I still haven't figured out what he/she is. Katie I need your help. I have slowly looked over the pictures in my copy of National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds 3 times, and still I cannot find the name for this bird.

The bird wasn't even my subject. He/she came into view as I was trying to take a picture of the Downy Woodpecker in my back yard.

I spotted a couple of these woodpeckers at work a few months ago, but they were too far up in the tree to get a good shot.

Tonight I got lucky. The camera was sitting on the kitchen table when I noticed them hanging around. There were two. This one wanted to hide behind branches.

Speaking of hiding behind branches. I missed getting a really good shot of a Red-shouldered Hawk yesterday. I was calling Linda to tell her I was leaving work at my scheduled time, instead of 2 hours later. As I hung up the phone and unlocked the car I noticed him bathing in the retention pond. By the time I got the camera out, he had moved to a tree. Everytime I moved to get a better view of him, he would fly higher into the tree, always staying hiden by foliage. (It didn't help that the camera had been sitting in an air conditioned room all day, and the lens fogged up on me.) He then made his way to another tree aproximately 100 yards from me. I will get a good shot of him one day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I found it on the last page of Sibley's, he/she is a member of the Family Estrildidae, Nutmeg Mannikin: small populations established in CA & south FL (since 1980's). Also known as Spice Finch or Spotted Munia.
Katie