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Answer 3 |
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Photo #3- “Difficult” Another fairly small passerine with a conical, seed-eater's bill-but this picture shows pretty much just a silhouette—how are we going to identify a bird if we can't see any color or plumage details?! But there is actually enough visible here to tell what this bird is. Within the groups that have this kind of bill, we can first eliminate species with very thick bills (grosbeaks, etc.), as well as crossbills. We can also throw out long-tailed species like the towhees, and even many moderately long-tailed sparrows (Song Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, the Zonotrichias, Spizellas, and a lot of others). The translucent area at the tip of the tail marks a white or pale patch. This eliminates more species with more or less this kind of bill- House Sparrow, Passerina buntings, etc. Only a few sparrows have white on the tail, and none quite in that pattern. The wings also look too long for any sparrow. We are again left with the finch family, but most of them also lack pale tail markings. Of the species that occur locally, the very thick bill of an Evening Grosbeak rules that out, so we are left with the genus Carduelis, locally including three goldfinches and Pine Siskin. The siskin has a thinner bill than this bird, and the tail is black tipped, with the pale (yellow) patches toward the base, so it's not that. Lawrence's Goldfinches and male Lesser Goldfinches have white on the tail, but these also have dark-tipped tails. All that is left is American Goldfinch, which does have a white-tipped tail. This American Goldfinch was part of a large flock at Neary Lagoon on January 29, feeding in sprouting willows, a favorite of this species.
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