A Diabolical Quick Quiz

By Corey • July 12, 2009 • 14 comments

All of the pictures here were taken at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge today. Please leave your guesses as to what species are depicted in the first two shots in the comments. For the third picture I am just asking for the total number of species in the picture but if you want to list them, well, knock yourself out! Good luck! An answer post will be up by the end of the week.

Quiz Picture 1

Quiz Picture 2

Quiz Picture 3

Tags: diabolical, ID Quiz, Jamaica Bay

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About the Author

Corey

Corey is a New Yorker who has lived most of his life upstate but has spent the last three years in Queens. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their two indoor cats, Hunter and B.B.

14 Responses to “A Diabolical Quick Quiz”

Will Jul 12th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
1. Great Blue Heron
2. Great Egret
3. 5 Species (Herring Gull,Ring-billed Gull, Common Tern, Gull-billed Tern, Short-billed Dowitcher)
Jason Jul 12th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Agree with Great Blue on #1. I’m leaning towards Least Bittern on #2. Also get 5 on #3 but I see Laughing Gulls, Common Terns, Forster’s Terns, Least Tern and Short-billed Dowitcher.
Will Jul 12th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Forgot about Laughing Gulls, since they don’t occur where I am… They are easy to forget, but they are common there.
Jochen Jul 13th, 2009 at 4:33 am
I am guessing the following species:
#1: Little Blue Heron
#2: Black-crowned Night-heron
#3: really difficult!
I can see
Laughing Gull
Least Tern
Forster’s Tern
Dowitchers (presumably Short-billed)
and then there may be a few Common Terns and a single Sandwich Tern but both calls are hard to make at that resolution.
Jochen Jul 13th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Aaand, there is one tern I presume is a Gull-billed Tern, but I am really not sure if there are any Common Terns on the pic.
Jochen Jul 14th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Okay, 6 species on pic # 3:
Laughing Gull
(Short-billed) Dowitcher
Least Tern
Forster’s Tern
Sandwich Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Jochen Jul 14th, 2009 at 4:38 am
Aaaah, this is so mean: there’s half a gull head in the foreground that might be an American Herring Gull.
I suppose I give up now…
Corey Jul 14th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Well, I will say that so far that one of the first two ahve been answered correctly and no one has correctly guessed the number of species…so I’ll wait a bit for an answer post…
Nate Jul 14th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
1. Great Blue Heron
2. Black-crowned Night Heron
3. 6 species (Laughing Gull, Forster’s Tern, Least Term, Gull-billed Tern, Short Dowitchers, Ring-billed Gull, and there may or may not be a Great Kiskadee in the bottom middle)
Nate Jul 14th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Wait, change the first one to Tricolored Heron, but only if you have them up there.
Jacob Jul 14th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
#2 Black-crowned night heron for sure, Laughing Gull, and that Herring? Gull in the foreground that’s blurry, as well as Least, Forsters and Gull-billed Terns. I don’t think I see any commons… and the SB dowitchers.
Jochen Jul 15th, 2009 at 2:44 am
So no-one shares my thought of there being a Sandwich Tern just to the left and behind the Least?
Hmmm…
Additionally, a few of these small blobs on the sand look a lot like some woodpecker.
Jason Jul 15th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Furthest back bird a Bonaparte’s Gull or similar and 2nd dowitcher from the left a Long-billed for 7? Probably should stop guessing unless there’s a better shot available.
Nate Jul 16th, 2009 at 8:35 am
I also though there might be a Long Dowitcher in there, especially the second from the left since it looks a little hunch-backed, but I think it’s just the angle.
I see a couple darker-billed terns in there, perhaps the ones Jochen says may be Sandwich, but the head doesn’t look flat enough for SATE, so they could be Commons. I’m thinking specifically of one in the bottom left behind two Forster’s.