{"id":92751,"date":"2021-07-30T06:35:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T12:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=92751"},"modified":"2021-07-30T06:35:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T12:35:56","slug":"bird-identification-from-a-partial-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/30\/bird-identification-from-a-partial-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird Identification From A Partial View"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cruddy<\/p>\n

There are times I take cruddy photos on purpose when I know that my view of the entire bird is obstructed and that I might only have a partial view of the bird. Or when I know the light sucks and that I will only get poor quality images.<\/p>\n

I did that once in Florida at Fort De Soto and by taking those images I documented the first White-tailed Kite seen in Pinellas County in nearly one hundred years.<\/p>\n

But I don’t do it just for rarities I also take documentary images of birds that are common to my area. I do it to know my birds. I do it so I can identify birds with just a few of their features because I don’t always see birds out in the open.<\/p>\n

Have a look at the the photo above and try to figure out the identification of the bird. I took this image earlier this week high in Summit County in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a>. The area is primarily riparian with willow thickets.<\/p>\n

I noted the dark tail, the white spotted coverts, and the buffy brown head through my viewfinder and with just this view I could identify what species this juvenile bird belongs to. That was all I needed to see.<\/p>\n

\"Cruddy<\/p>\n

Not long after I spotted the first bird I saw another young bird nearly hidden in the same willows. This was about the clearest view that I got of this bird with my eyes and through the viewfinder. The shape of its bill plus the greenish tint on the tail and primary feathers were all I needed to identify the species of this immature feathered delight.<\/p>\n

I take photos like these so I can study them when I get home and if I wasn’t able to identify the bird in the field I have a puzzle to solve. Sometimes the photos only show an eye, foot, bill, back of the head, the belly, a covert, or even just the tip of the tail and as I test myself I learn.<\/p>\n

Because everyday in the field is my “classroom” as a student of nature I knew the identification of these two before I saw them through my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

Did you figure out the identifications of these two birds?<\/p>\n

The first is an immature Spotted Towhee<\/span><\/a> and the second is an immature Green-tailed Towhee<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. It is even better this morning because it has been raining softly since I woke. We need this rain.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are times I take cruddy photos on purpose when I know that my view of the entire bird is obstructed and that I might only have a partial view of the bird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[163,27,2212,3542,1731,26,773],"tags":[215,3940,3905,5013,4067,4071,4069,12053,2303,3546,855,4195,3545,2315,5908,4854,4193],"class_list":["post-92751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-identification","category-avian","category-green-tailed-towhees","category-spotted-towhees","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-bird-id","tag-canyon","tag-green-tailed-towhee","tag-identification","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-mountains","tag-partial-view","tag-pipilo-chlorurus","tag-pipilo-maculatus","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-spotted-towhee","tag-summer-3","tag-towhee","tag-towhees","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t