Too Easy Tanner Spring Quiz Answers

Well, apparently “Too Easy Tanner Spring Quiz” was a total misnomer, as only two of the three images had the birds in them correctly identified despite some rather valiant guesswork by brave birders who were not afraid to look slightly foolish.

Let’s go through the images one at a time and see how everyone did.  First up is image number one, now with the birds conveniently underlined.  They are, from left to right, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, House Sparrow, European Starling, House Sparrow.  Congrats to John for being the first to get this one correct.

The second picture is the one that flummoxed every single guesser, with most thinking an American Goldfinch was pictured, but with House Sparrow and House Finch also mentioned.  Let’s take a look at the original and see what caused so much confusion, shall we? Oh, by the way, the bird is about a third of the way in from the left side, on the rock a little it above the water.

That is hard!  Now let’s crop and zoom and see if we can’t get a better idea of what, exactly, we are dealing with here.  I bet people will want to revise their guesses…

…because what we are dealing with is the world’s dullest Pine Warbler!

Finally, the bonus quiz picture, taken in Central Park but not at Tanner Spring, a picture which most people seemed to think was birdless (which, considering some of my earlier quizzes might seem like a good guess, but I did say this was “Too Easy” so of course there are birds in each picture!).  The bird, which was correctly identified by Nate, is sitting on the skinny log, facing left, exactly where the log makes a crazy bend.

And here it is blown up, so everyone can see that Nate was correct to call it a Hermit Thrush.

If you think you performed well enough to deserve a prize, please apply to Charlie for your free beer.  Better luck next time!