Utah Birds
Photo Quiz Answer
  

  
      Quiz # 013  (June 2011)
  

  
  

 

  
Comments
:

This bird is facing directly away from us.  The most obvious thing that jumps out at us is the reddish color on the top of the head.  The red appears to run down the middle of the head, and is bordered by black on both sides.  That is important and we will get back to it later.  First I want to take a look at the wings though.  From this angle we can’t get an ideal look at the wing, but we can see quite a bit.  There appears to be a wing-bar and the secondaries are quite yellow.  Looking closely at the base of the secondaries there is a black patch separating the yellow and the white wing-bar.  I admit I had never noticed this before, but it is a common characteristic in both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets.  Sibley shows it well.  Look closely at the pictures in Sibley and compare it with the photo – I think you could ID this bird just by black pattern in the secondaries and primary coverts.   More than likely this wouldn’t be very handy in the field, but an interesting thing to look for and might be good for a bird quiz! Going back to the crown – the thing that tripped a lot of you up was the red color.  That should make this a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, right?  Actually it doesn’t.  Male Golden-crowned Kinglets are surprisingly red or orange, especially toward the back of the head.  The black borders are the give away.  Ruby-crowned Kinglets don’t have black borders on their crown, but Golden-Crowned Kinglets do.

Note: This was the last quiz of this round. The last round we only had 1 person get all the quizzes correct, but this time there were 3 and quite a few people with 5 correct answers. Congratulations to Leah Lewis, Weston Smith, and Cliff Weisse for getting 100%. I put the 3 names in a hat and my wife picked Leah Lewis as the winner of this round. The prize is a copy of Birds of Brazil by Deotato Souza. Congrats Leah. The next round starts with the next quiz and will end with the December quiz. Good Luck.
  

 

  
Correct Answers (in order received):

  1. Weston Smith
  2. Eric Huish
  3. Ryan O’Donnell
  4. Lee Jones
  5. Steve Colman
  6. Keeli Marvel
  7. Steve Carr
  8. Bill Fenimore
  9. Caroina Roa
10. Cliff Weisse
11. Yvonne Carter
12. Leah Lewis
13. Stephanie Greenwood
14. Dannie Carsen
15. Dennis Shirley

Incorrect Answers:

  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 9