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Photo ID quiz...



The note about Audubon mag's mislabeled "bluebill" duck photo coincidentally
came the day before I noticed, while flipping through my copy of National
Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds (eastern edition) a
rather serious misidentification in a book ostensibly intended to help
identify birds correctly.  This is the 1994, 1995 completely revised edition
with "all new photography", second edition, Alfred A.Knopf, Chanticleer
Press, New York.

So dig out your copy of this book (you know, the one with green vinyl cover)
and have a look.

Here's my quiz for carolinabirders:  What species is actually portrayed in
the photo, and what species is it called in the caption?

What makes this such a glaring error, is that the bird pictured does not
occur in N. America at all, not even as a vagrant. Presumably this bird was
NOT photographed in the US, or a remarkable record has been both overlooked
and beautifully documented simultaneously, no small feat in itself.

Hint:  The photo is excellent, and provides plenty of plumage/shape
characteristics to separate it from the N. Am. species it is purported to
be.  Knowledge of tropical species or a Mexican or S. Am. guide might be
useful in detecting this bird.

Note:  The silly photo of a dark-eyed icterid (# 635 "Rusty Blackbird") is
not my quiz-bird, as it is almost too ridiculous to merit mention, but if
anyone does know what it is, I'd be interested.  Obviously not a male Rusty
Blackbird, as the book wants us to believe, but is it a Red-winged Blackbird
with a completely concealed or missing shoulder patch?  Perhaps a Shiny
Cowbird?

Keep up the good work, Audubon!

Tim Kalbach
grebe@mindspring.com
Columbia, SC