What bird species are really hard to tell apart? (2 Viewers)

[grebefeet9]

dowitchers in nonbreeding plumage can be tough. another one that comes to mind are some new world sparrows.

 

[Bird_Bill]

Lot of tough ones already mentioned. Common and Fish crow's here drives me nuts when not vocalizing.

 

[Monahawk]

non- adult gulls. Mucho respect to those birders who can ID juvenile gulls effortlessly, and who try to educate the rest of us mortals. All that time spent wandering around dumps and sewage treatment plants has paid off..............

Agree. All those flippin' gulls once known to everyone as herring gulls but are now something else are a nightmare, especially as you say the juveniles.

Si.

 

[Laggard]

Agree. All those flippin' gulls once known to everyone as herring gulls but are now something else are a nightmare, especially as you say the juveniles.

Si.

If I were president I would require all gulls have unique plumage. None of this 1st year, 2nd year crap. Pick a unique color scheme and stick with it!

 

[cuckooroller]

If I were president I would require all gulls have unique plumage. None of this 1st year, 2nd year crap. Pick a unique color scheme and stick with it!

I agree. Lump them all in one species, ban subspecies, if for no other reason than to promote the general level of sanity of the human race. We can call it the Lord Have Mercy On Us Gull.

 

[alex berryman]

Female Spannish Sparrow vs Female House Sparrow?

 

[birding maniac]

Difficult but i believe the sparrows, in range can be possible,

 

[jurek]

Sussex Wren and Essex Wren. Nobody yet recognized them at all!

 

[Andy Hurley]

I think with the large gulls, the more experience you have, the harder it gets because of the seeming endless variables of intergrades and local variation.

Andy

 

[BirdBoyBen]

Firecrest and Madeiran Firecrest

 

[Green Sandpiper]

Non- birders are way ahead of us on this, folks. Where we will tear our hair (and other people's) out over the subtle differences between a juvie herring gull and common gull, non birders merely refer to them as 'Seagulls.'

How could we have been so blind?????

 

[Fozzybear]

Non- birders are way ahead of us on this, folks. Where we will tear our hair (and other people's) out over the subtle differences between a juvie herring gull and common gull, non birders merely refer to them as 'Seagulls.'

How could we have been so blind?????

It would certainly save a lot of uncertainty, I usually don't worry much about identifying them myself, though I do often spend some time enjoying watching them fly about and like looking at the antics of Black-headed Gulls a lot. The problem with the seagull clumping though they also often include Terns and Fulmars in the 'seagull' pigeonhole (sic... should that be gullhole?). :eek!: By that rationale we should lump Blackbirds in with 'Crows'!

The species that I particularly find difficult to differentiate are dotbirds... you know, the ones that always fly up from the edge of your vision and zip across an overcast sky (or in front of the sun) at height, leaving you completely befuddled by the small black blur. "What was that?" "Dunno, it's just a dot...".

 

[Chosun Juan]

Similar to trying to tell Gee-whizzits from Little brown jobs! :-O

I can't believe though, that no one has brought up Hawks v Sprawks.

Out this way the male Goshawks can be pretty hard to tell from the female Collared Sparrowhawks , especially once regional /habitat variation and juveniles / immatures are thrown into the mix, and if they'll only give a fleeting glimpse through the canopy.

I had one in my garden tonight, close up, and I still only just managed, to think, that it was a male Gos. (as I never got a clear look at my fav. determinant - the long middle toe)

I have also seen a Goshawk in a forest near here that was absolutely Hammersley Iron Ore in colour (ok - near enough!) - due to it living in an ancient cypress pine forest that was covered in red lichen .....

There are others - green flash parrots, dark icarus outdoing raptors, but I shant go on ......... |:d|



Chosun :gh:

 

[arniemonkey]

nightjars as we rarely see then in the day

 

[Reuven_M]

nightjars as we rarely see then in the day

Really hard to tell apart from what?

 

[A2GG]

This may not be a difficult one for a very experienced birder, but I am currently having difficulty with distinguishing between the hairy and downy woodpecker. I know the hairy is a little bigger and the bill is longer. I guess I haven't seen enough of them. I don't think I have seen a Hairy WP at all yet. I am assuming they have all been the Downy due to their size. Can't these two guys just sit side by side real nice for me just once?

Some of the little brown sparrows are difficult for me too although I am beginning to get a handle on the real local ones here.

off topic...but, I think what's worse are age distinctions within the same species and sometimes the sex. The first time I saw a female Red-Winged Blackbird I thought I was seeing a different species altogether and it took some time looking through the guides to figure out it was a female RWB.

as you can tell I don't have the most experience yet.

 

[cuckooroller]

Annabeth,
Hairy -vs- Downy. What I did was just look at a ton of photos (correctly vetted as to the ID it is understood!). The bill strength is the best distinguisher. After looking at lots of photos you just start knowing by instinct which is which the first time you see a hairy/downy.

 

[John Cantelo]

Sussex Wren and Essex Wren. Nobody yet recognized them at all!

We have, but the real problem is the hybrid swarm of wrens we have in Kent!

 

[knotsbirder]

Really hard to tell apart from what?

I assume other species of Nightjar.

 

[BillN]

I'm a new "bird watcher" - now retired - when I was a "kid" I knew far more than I know now - but I'm catching up fast thanks to you guys, the internet and various books and guides.

I have no idea now which Gull is which and when I think I know, I'm wrong at least 50% of the time - so in regular life, it's Gulls, Gulls and Gulls for me - they should be born with "stickers" on them to help watchers like me