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ABA Photo Quiz

ABA Online Bird Photo Quiz 112

Answer

This month’s quiz bird is quite hidden and arriving at the correct answer required assessing the various bits and pieces of color visible through the juniper vegetation accurately. There is but a single bit of bright, non-earth-tone color here, a strip of yellow in the bottom-right corner of the picture. Because we can see sky below that, we can safely assume that, if part of the quiz bird, it must be some distal part. With that assumption, unless the wings are open or the bird is upside down, the yellow must be on the tail tip. We can further back that determination with the fact that no ABA-area bird species has such a bright and strongly-contrasting yellow tip to the wing.

Because only two ABA-area bird species sport such a distinct yellow tail tip, our eyes ought to travel up the bird’s body to look for clues to differentiate the two waxwing species, and there are two such clues. The first and largest is the extensive gray of the underparts and the second is obtained by close study of the area just above that yellow tail tip. In the cutout of the quiz picture provided below, the red arrow points to the tip of the undertail coverts, which are relatively and absolutely longer in Bohemian Waxwing than in Cedar Waxwing; these coverts extend nearly to the yellow tail tip.

The color of these coverts is also a superb clue to the identify of the Bohemian Waxwing in this picture that I took in Kit Carson Co., CO, on 5 November 2004.

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The following people (listed by submission date beginning with the earliest) submitted correct answers for the March Bird Photo Quiz—Bohemian Waxwing:

  1. Abrahm Simons - Roseville
  2. Margaret Smith - Boulder, CO
  3. Clifford Hawley - Sacramento, CA
  4. Nick Lund - Silver Spring, MD
  5. Melissa Penta - Vestal, New York
  6. Alex Burdo - Fairfield, CT
  7. William Rockey - Esparto, CA
  8. Rich Stanton - Columbia, MO
  9. Gabriel Willow - Brooklyn, NY
  10. Carina Graham - Escondido, CA
  11. Andrew Aldrich - Aurora, IL
  12. Tim Hochstetler - Millersburg OH
  13. Rob Fergus - Hampton, NJ
  14. Rick Poulin - Ottawa, Ontario
  15. Michael Lester - Tucson, AZ
  16. Robert Packard - Riverside, CA
  17. Jennie Duberstein - Tucson, Arizona
  18. Dwight Porter - Portland, Oregon
  19. Eric Antonio Martinez - Oaxaca, Mexico
  20. Jilly Rodriguez Mendez - Oaxaca, Mexico
  21. Aaron Bilyeu - Placerville, CA
  22. Steve Huggins - Chicago, IL
  23. Terri Everett - Big Rapids, MI
  24. Greg Prelich - New Rochelle, NY
  25. Drew Weber - State College
  26. Julie Desmeules - Québec, QC
  27. Jim Mountjoy - Galesburg, IL
  28. Chris Warren - Austin, TX
  29. Madeleine McDonald - San Antonio
  30. Anya Auerbach - New York, NY
  31. Graham Etherington - Norwich, UK
  32. Justyn Stahl - San Clemente Island, CA
  33. David Hollie - Ringgold, GA
  34. Ian Bixby - OK
  35. Michael S. Levy - Centereach, N.Y.
  36. Pim Wolf Vlissingen - The Netherlands
  37. Jimmy Warren - Schwenksville, PA
  38. Laure Neish - Penticton, BC Canada
  39. Ryan O'Donnell - Logan, Utah
  40. Aspen Ellis - Ann Arbor, MI
  41. Ethan Kistler - Oak Harbor, Ohio
  42. A. Algazzali - Hercules, Ca
  43. Kim Savides - Chardon, OH
  44. Xinyu Zhu - Vancouver, BC
  45. Landon Neumann - Logansport, IN
  46. Claude Auchu - La Pocatiere, Quebec
  47. Alex Champagne - Columbus, OH
  48. Andrew M - Plainview, NY
  49. Sébastien Rioux - Québec city, Qc, Canada
  50. Gordon Karre - Mesa, AZ
  51. Charlotte Wasylik - Alberta Canada
  52. Frank Izaguirre - Pittsburgh, PA
  53. Thomas Hall - Livermore, CO
  54. Greg Zupansic - Eugene, Oregon
  55. Tom Howe - Alcoa, TN
  56. Mike Fialkovich - Pittsburgh, PA
  57. Monica Nugent - New Westminster B.C.
  58. Don Pendleton - East Palo Alto, CA
  59. Joshua Stuart Rose - Amherst MA
  60. Rebecca Mongiat - Chicago, IL
  61. Benjamin Shamgochian - East Providence, RI
  62. Zachary Holderby - Penobscot, ME
  63. Benjamin Guo - Bloomington, Illinois
  64. Andy Deegan - New London, NH
  65. Skyler Bol - Ft. Collins, Colorado
  66. Karl Erich Mayer - Saint Clair Shores, Michigan
  67. Darrel Wilder - Johnson City, TN
  68. Larry Kline - Fredericksburg, VA
  69. Barb Duncan - Jefferson City, MO
  70. Marcelo Brongo - Sant Cugat del Valles, Spain
  71. Gary Woods- Fresno, CA
  72. Lance Verderame - Livingston Manor, NY
  73. George F. Cresswell - Colorado Springs, CO
  74. Josh Southern - Raleigh, NC
  75. Chris Blazo - Chambersburg, PA
  76. Josh Yoder - Dundee ohio
  77. Ann Gibson - Winfield, BC
  78. Wes Serafin - Orland Pk,Il 60462
  79. Terry Grabill - Newaygo
  80. Dave Ingram - Courtenay, BC
  81. Martin Sharp - Edmonton, Alberta
  82. Dean Nicholson - Cranbrook, B.C.
  83. Tom Benson - San Bernardino, CA
  84. Thomas Ford-Hutchinson - Irvine, CA
  85. Nick Newberry - Oakton, VA
  86. Dan Vice Barrigada - Guam
  87. Mike Wasilco - Caledonia, NY
  88. Liis Veelma - Winnipeg, MB
  89. Jonathan Frodge - Cincinnati, Ohio
  90. Merv J. Cormier - Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
  91. Charlie Spencer - Lexington, SC
  92. Ben Peters - Hamilton, MA
  93. Fred Sladen - New London, NH
  94. Celestyn Brozek - Albuquerque, NM
  95. Alexandre Anctil - Rimouski, Qc
  96. Scott Byrd - King George, VA
  97. Aiden Moser - Henniker, NH
  98. Josh Anderson - Litchfield, MN
  99. Chloe Walker - Murfreesboro, Tennessee
  100. John Shamgochian - East Providence, RI
  101. Barb Robertson - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  102. John Branchflower - Portland, OR
  103. Johnathon Larson - Waltham, MA
  104. Mary Margaret Ferraro - Ann Arbor, Michigan
  105. Traci Van Tine- Otter Lake, MI
  106. Brian Smith - Chicago, IL
  107. Vince Cavalieri - DeWitt, MI
  108. Abril Heredia - Mexico City
  109. Greg Schrott - Avon Park, FL
  110. Larry Therrien - Belchertown, MA
  111. Elaine MacPherson - Sierra Madre, CA
  112. Andrew Thornton - Asheboro, NC
  113. Steve Hampton - Davis, CA
  114. Matthew Sim - Calgary, Alberta
  115. logan kahle - San Francisco, CA
  116. Pam Myers - Santa Cruz, CA
  117. Matt Collins - Gahanna, Ohio
  118. Michael Goebel - Bastrop, TX
  119. William von Herff - Ottawa,Ontario
  120. Annie Meyer - Tacoma, WA
  121. Kyle Carlsen- Vincent, Ohio
  122. Peter Lane - Québec City, Canada
  123. Philip Kline - Tucson, AZ
  124. Gabe Cohen-Glinick - Providence, RI
  125. Niko Ranta - Corvallis, Oregon
  126. James McKay - Mesa, AZ
  127. Erik Hansen - Minneapolis, MN
  128. Bob Archer - Portland, OR
  129. David Bell - Guelph, ON
  130. Elaine Nakash - Bowie, MD
  131. Stephanie Moore - Seattle, WA
  132. Olivier Barden - Quebec City, Qc
  133. Linda Fink - Grand Ronde, OR
  134. Nolan Walker - Murfreesboro, TN
  135. Dave Slager - Columbus, Ohio
  136. John Hammond - Durham, NC
  137. Georgia Conti Patzcuaro - Michoacan, Mexico
  138. Marcel Such - Lyons, CO
  139. Greg Majewski - Indianapolis, IN
  140. Michael Kline - Fredericksburg Va.
  141. Adrian Azpiroz - Montevideo, Uruguay
  142. Rich Swartzentruber - Salem, Oregon
  143. Nathan Webb- Elba, AL
  144. Daroczi J. Szilard - Tg.-Mures, Romania
  145. Jay Powell - Macedon NY
  146. Holland Rupp - Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.
  147. Lorena Siqueira - FL


How Did You Compare?

As stated in the quiz rules, answers must consist simply of the Common or English name exactly as it appears in the ABA Checklist.

The following list shows the number of submissions for each species guessed.



Cedar Waxwing
54
MacGillivray's Warbler
2
Mourning Warbler
1
Nashville Warbler
1
Common Yellowthroat
1
Great Kiskadee
1
Blue Jay
1
Gray Partridge
1
 
 


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The photo and answer for this quiz were supplied by Tony Leukering.