Tuesday, September 17, 2024
OVENBIRD, WESTERN UPLANDS (MILE 3 ), ALGONQUIN PROVINCIAL PARK, NIPISSING DISTRICT, ONTARIO, 9/15/2024
The lighting was terrible for this photo, so I had to edit the photo to bring some of the details out. I believe this bird is an ovenbird because of its bold whitish eyering and black streaks on its underparts. Also, if you look at its crown on first photo, you can see the beginning of the single stripe (next to a black stripe) that goes laterally across its crown. If you look closely, you can see that it is initially whitish, but then just before is obscured by branches and leaves it turns orange. This is diagnostic of an Ovenbird.
MALE & FEMALE RED CROSSBILLS & PARTIALLY LEUCISTIC FEMALE RED CROSSBILL, WESTERN UPLANDS (MILE 3), NIPISSING DISTRICT, ONTARIO, 9/15/2024 - NEW SPECIES TO LIFE LIST
We can ID these crossbills as Red Crossbills as follows:
- Medium size
- The distinctive mandibles are curved and cross at their tips. This type of bill enables crossbills to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits.
- Short, deeply notched, dark tail
- Dark eyes
- Dark wings
- The male's (on right in first photo and in second photo) plumage is reddish with others colors mixed in: gray, yellow-green, etc.
- The female (upper two birds in first photo and photos three to five) has mostly yellow-green plumage with some red mixed in.
- The female with white patches I believe is partially leucistic. Leucism is the partial loss or full loss of pigmentation in an animal (except for the eyes) and it causes white, pale or patchy coloration of the feathers, skin, hair and scales.
The Red Crossbill is a new species to our ebird Photographic Life List. Our ebird Life List now stands at 1,157.
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