New Photo Quiz: May/June 2013 Birding

It’s early summer in the northern hemisphere. What better time for a photo quiz on–wait for it–redpolls!

Seriously, if you’re on a bird records committee, you’re likely dealing with redpolls right now. Immense numbers of redpolls descended upon the Lower 48 this past winter, and quite a number of them were rare Hoary Redpolls. Records committees are still sorting it all out. And if you saw a rare Hoary and dutifully submitted documentation to your records committee, then you’re likely waiting for a decision on your bird. For a number of us in the sweltering Lower 48, redpolls are still very much on our minds.

Thus, a photo quiz on redpolls. A full analysis will appear in the print version of the July/August 2013 Birding. For now, let’s see if we can work them out among ourselves, right here, right now, at The ABA Blog.

Here goes:

Quiz Bird A. Upper Peninsula of Michigan, January 2013. 

Quiz Bird B. Upstate New York, February 2013.

Quiz Bird C. Upstate New York, February 2013.

If you think these are easy, then crank it up a notch. How old is each quiz bird? Male or female? And what subspecies?

Again, the “official” answers will appear a bit later, but let’s for now try to work this out together, right here.

Have at it!