Jaeger ID
by Ted Floyd
Steve Howell, in a recent comment to The ABA Blog (click here, and scroll waaay down to the extreme bottom) posted:
“Basically, there are two kinds of birders—those who make mistakes and those who lie about it. I haven't misidentified a bird since the last time I went birding, yesterday, and thankfully I was corrected by a birding friend, and I learned a bit more. Hence, with the benefit of others, be they friends, peers, or BRCs, we may be led to see our mistakes and learn from them, not sulk, and [...]”
It's safe to say that anybody with any amount of experience with jaegers has made some mistakes. Here, then, are some tricky jaeger photos that have appeared in recent issues of Birding magazine. Of some interest is that the challenge here is Long-tailed vs. Pomarine. More commonly, it seems, the most confusing pairings involve Parasitic Jaeger: Parasitic vs. Long-tailed and Parasitic vs. Pomarine. No matter, this time it's Long-tailed vs. Pomarine.
Enough preamble. Here come the images, along with critical information regarding date and location. ID experts Tom Johnson and Steve Howell have already weighed in with their assessments. (Johnson: Birding, May 2012, p. 57. Howell, Birding, September 2012, p. 12.) Now what do you think?
Monterey Bay, California; 5 August. 2011. Photo by Tom Johnson.
Off Hatteras, North Carolina; 31 May 2012. Photo by Steve N. G. Howell.
Off Hatteras, North Carolina; 31 May 2008. Photo by Steve N. G. Howell.
Off Hatteras, North Caroliina; 11 August 2010. Photo by Steve N. G. Howell.
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.