Help with Bird ID please

[hsessions]

Hello can anyone help?

 

I have tried searched everywhere, the closest I came to was Fish Crow; wouldn't want to mis-ID the bird, that would be embarassing.  So if anyone knows, help please.

Location: Ontario, Canada, North America.

 

 

Thanks

Helen

Edited June 1, 2021 by hsessions

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, hsessions said:

Well, turned out to be a Juvenile Common Grackle.  Betty, right, the bird is a juvenile; me wrong, not a Fish Crow we don't have them around here.  I returned to this place again and again, saw lots of Grackles, a few with their young.  I still can't hardly tell the difference Fish Crow, American Crow, Juvenile Grackle.  They look so alike.  But there it is.

 

Helen

Good you have a definitive ID. In Oklahoma, we had the Great-tailed grackles. Male below.

 

 

Female

Edited June 6, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[hsessions]

7 hours ago, Cecile Marion said:

One thing I did that’s helped me with IDs was join a local birding Facebook group and, more or less, lurk. It’s not only helped me with bird identification, but I’ve learned more about birds that migrate through our area.

Thanks Cecile, good tip.  Only I don't have a facebook account and don't want to open one but that does give me an idea to find a good reliable place to lurk.

[hsessions]

6 hours ago, MizBrown said:

 

Looking more closely, the crows and ravens have more arched top bills.  This is a Common Raven in Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive

 

 

Not an easy ID. And then there was this glossy sheen to the feathers on those birds I read about although lighting can play a big role here.

[hsessions]

5 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Good you have a definitive ID. In Oklahoma, we had the Great-tailed grackles. Male below.

 

 

Female

 

I can't tell the difference between a male and a female grackle at this point.  Will have to read up on that and a whole lot more. 

Nice shots Betty and always those trees and beautiful colors.

[hsessions]

Been meaning to return to this thread with just an update.  So after asking about whether that common grackle I posted was a Fish Crow, some days later I went out to the lake to see what birds I could find there and I certainly did not have fish crow on my mind.  There were supposed to be some Cedar Waxwings and some people had spotted Orioles and pointed me to where to go find them.  What I saw instead (talk about chance, or coincidence) was a bird which I have now ID'd as a Fish Crow.  I am pretty sure I got it right this time and this is the bird.

 

The other thing I've been meaning to do is read up on the Common Grackle as I found that I may have made the mistake of captioning and keywording (mostly copy and paste from one image I initially captioned as such to the rest) Adult Male, even though I can't tell the difference they look the same to me.  I have an image of what I think would be the female with her juvenile but you never know, and if it is a female then honestly I don't see the difference between a male and female.  Read that the female is less glossy, but with different lighting they can all look 'glossy'.  Unless, Betty if you happen on this thread since you posted an image where you identified your grackle as a male you can give me some tips as to how you tell them apart.

On 06/06/2021 at 17:16, Betty LaRue said:

Good you have a definitive ID. In Oklahoma, we had the Great-tailed grackles. Male below.

 

 

Female

Thanks

Helen

Edited July 4, 2021 by hsessions

[Jill Morgan]

17 minutes ago, hsessions said:

Been meaning to return to this thread with just an update.  So after asking about whether that common grackle I posted was a Fish Crow, some days later I went out to the lake to see what birds I could find there and I certainly did not have fish crow on my mind.  There were supposed to be some Cedar Waxwings and some people had spotted Orioles and pointed me to where to go find them.  What I saw instead (talk about chance, or coincidence) was a bird which I have now ID'd as a Fish Crow.  I am pretty sure I got it right this time and this is the bird.

 

The other thing I've been meaning to do is read up on the Common Grackle as I found that I may have made the mistake of captioning and keywording (mostly copy and paste from one image I initially captioned as such to the rest) Adult Male, even though I can't tell the difference they look the same to me.  I have an image of what I think would be the female with her juvenile but you never know, and if it is a female then honestly I don't see the difference between a male and female.  Read that the female is less glossy, but with different lighting they can all look 'glossy'.  Unless, Betty if you happen on this thread since you posted an image where you identified your grackle as a male you can give me some tips as to how you tell them apart.

Thanks

Helen

 

Common Grackles (both male and female) have golden eyes. Juveniles will have dark eyes.

 

Jill

[hsessions]

1 hour ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

Common Grackles (both male and female) have golden eyes. Juveniles will have dark eyes.

 

Jill

Tnanks Jill.  But how do you tell the difference between Adult Male and Adult Female?

Helen

[Jill Morgan]

Just now, hsessions said:

Tnanks Jill.  But how do you tell the difference between Adult Male and Adult Female?

Helen

 

The males have that distinct iridescent blue head. Body can look black, but in bright light is a deep bronze.  Females can have the blue head, but not as iridescent and sometimes almost totally bronze. I have two females with young that hang around and both have the blue head, but not as bright and smaller than the males.

 

Jill

[hsessions]

7 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

The males have that distinct iridescent blue head. Body can look black, but in bright light is a deep bronze.  Females can have the blue head, but not as iridescent and sometimes almost totally bronze. I have two females with young that hang around and both have the blue head, but not as bright and smaller than the males.

 

Jill

Okay, thanks again Jill.  Will have to review my images and re caption and keyword.  I'd removed 'Adult Male' from all of them in the captions.

 

Helen

[Betty LaRue]

15 hours ago, hsessions said:

Okay, thanks again Jill.  Will have to review my images and re caption and keyword.  I'd removed 'Adult Male' from all of them in the captions.

 

Helen

The grackles I had in Oklahoma were Great-tailed grackles, Quiscalus mexicanus. There are also boat-tailed grackles and common grackles.

The great-tailed females are easy to tell, because they are smaller and brown. This probably won’t help you if yours is the Common grackle.

Male:

Female: this is a juvenile, her eye color hasn’t changed.

Edited July 5, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[BeeTee]

I just read this topic and wonder why you don't use an app to identify birds. 
Especially in northern america, where the Audubon Field Bird Guide is greatly 
used - as a book, in the old times. Fellow birders say that the app is good too. 
I'm based in Europe, so I don't use it. 
Audubon Bird Guide App (it's free) 

greetz

[hsessions]

1 hour ago, BeeTee said:

I just read this topic and wonder why you don't use an app to identify birds. 
Especially in northern america, where the Audubon Field Bird Guide is greatly 
used - as a book, in the old times. Fellow birders say that the app is good too. 
I'm based in Europe, so I don't use it. 
Audubon Bird Guide App (it's free) 

greetz

Thank you Greetz.  I did not know about this App, hadn't heard of it.  Had been relying on Cornell Labs,

searching the the internet and the help of some forum members here.

Thanks again, I think it will be very handy.

Helen

[meanderingemu]

26 minutes ago, hsessions said:

Thank you Greetz.  I did not know about this App, hadn't heard of it.  Had been relying on Cornell Labs,

searching the the internet and the help of some forum members here.

Thanks again, I think it will be very handy.

Helen

 

 

I use the Cornell app.  It's generally good, but i think my main issue is they usually show you the top image, usually a male, in the search results.  I remember having a largish brown and buff/reddish bird. Enter the info, and just dismissed the Red-winged blackbird because they show me the male.  Couldn't understand even why it make it through the filter. When i found 0 results that matched then i started scrolling through the species to find it was the female RWBB  

 

 

still haven't tried the new sound feature. 

[hsessions]

2 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

I use the Cornell app.  It's generally good, but i think my main issue is they usually show you the top image, usually a male, in the search results.  I remember having a largish brown and buff/reddish bird. Enter the info, and just dismissed the Red-winged blackbird because they show me the male.  Couldn't understand even why it make it through the filter. When i found 0 results that matched then i started scrolling through the species to find it was the female RWBB  

 

still haven't tried the new sound feature. 

Agree, running into the same issues with Cornell.  A bit tougher for me too as this wole birding thing is new to me.  With Cornell, I give up sometimes and just use search by image the whole internet; better results sometimes. I have sat two hours re-captioning, re-keywording most of the bird images.  Was shocked at some of the keywords I had in there.  Have omitted male and female on some of them for now until sure to be on the safe side.

 

Helen