Birder's quiz game

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Birder's quiz game

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1Nycticebus
Modifié : Août 12, 2008, 12:05 pm

Recently I acquired The Birder's Quiz Book by Henry Collins which includes some nice drawings as well as bird trivia. I can't share the drawings, but maybe it would be fun to try a game. Proposal: A question is set and answered, and then the one who gets it right first may ask the next question.

Let's see if enough of us are back indoors to play.

(edited to fix the touchstone, which is still not cooperating)

2Nycticebus
Août 9, 2008, 10:10 pm

Question #1
Which of these has a direct, horizontal flight towards its roost: Redwinged Blackbird or Common Grackle?

3Nycticebus
Août 9, 2008, 10:13 pm

And since #1 is unfairly biased to the eastern North America, here's #2:
What famous person has both a warbler and a shearwater carrying his name?

4lorax
Août 11, 2008, 2:51 pm

3>

Well, Audubon does. (You didn't specify it had to be at the species level, after all, and lots of people still talk about Audubon's Warbler and Myrtle Warbler rather than just Yellow-rumped.) Is that the one you wanted?

I don't have the quiz book though, so I can't ask the next question.

5Nycticebus
Août 12, 2008, 12:04 pm

hooray, I'm glad someone's checking in to play.

And....You're right! Actually, this is a problem with this cute little book - the names are all out of date.

now it's your turn to ask a question.

6tropics
Août 12, 2008, 12:31 pm

I don't have the book, so I'm referring to sites on the Net and my well-stocked birding reference library.

Which bird species is the highest altitude migrant? And what physiologic characteristics make this high flight possible?

7Nycticebus
Août 14, 2008, 9:49 pm

oh dear, I don't know! How much cheating is allowed? May I check the web, or would you like to give a hint?

8oregonobsessionz
Modifié : Août 15, 2008, 12:45 am

>6 tropics:

Geese get pretty high. I know that aircraft are tested to demonstrate their ability to withstand an in-flight collision with a goose.

{Off topic - this is done with a "chicken cannon". At one time they actually used live chickens, but now they use frozen ones.}

9tropics
Août 17, 2008, 12:31 pm

Answer to #6 is here: http://www.audubonmagazine.org/birds/birds0011.html

And my vote is for utilizing all available references.

10Nycticebus
Août 17, 2008, 2:44 pm

Looks like Oregon got it right. Wanna ask the next one?

11Nycticebus
Août 19, 2008, 1:30 pm

hmm, maybe there aren't enough of us around to play, especially as fall migrations begin (in this hemisphere). But just in case, here's another:

pick from this list the three species with similar food habits:

Bobwhite (quail), Canvasback (duck), American Goldfinch, Green Heron, Least Sandpiper, Whitethroated Sparrow

12Helenoel
Août 19, 2008, 7:32 pm

I'll bite- (no pun intended- well not much of one). Bobwhite, goldfinch and sparrow are all seedeaters-

Although tee others are all water feeders, I think they go for different sizes and protein balances.

May be way off base- but I didn't look it up.

13tropics
Août 20, 2008, 11:59 am

Least sandpipers also feed on seeds:

http://www.nsis.org/bird/sp/wb-sand.html

As do canvasbacks:

http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/bio/birds/swndk/canv/canv_inf.htm

Green herons have been observed using seeds as bait while fishing:

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v106n03/p0567-p0569.pdf

14Nycticebus
Modifié : Août 21, 2008, 10:55 am

uh oh, tropics clearly knows far too much for simple-minded trivia! Helenowl got what I was looking for: seedeaters. I suppose I should write something like 'diet primarily consists of seeds' to account for tropics' useful additional details.

So, Helen, would you like to pose a question next?

Oh, sorry for the typo, Helenoel, but it's a good slip for a birding discussion, so I'll leave it!

15Helenoel
Août 21, 2008, 7:55 pm

I like the typo- may have to adopt it - if only to remind my kid that age correlates to wisdom - it does, doesn't it?

This is not a very tough question, but since I've seen four qualifying species and know of at least one other without looking it up, it interests me, and maybe we can collect some different answers.

Name three species of bird that have been successfully reintroduced to areas where they once lived. Tell us where, if you can. The ones I'm thinking of have recovered or at least improved their numbers from threatened or endangered status.

16lorax
Août 22, 2008, 4:24 pm

1. California Condor. Re-introduced to southern California (notably the Los Padres National Forest near Los Angeles) and to the Grand Canyon in Arizona (where I've seen them).

2. Peregrine Falcon. Re-introduced throughout the eastern United States especially in cities.

3. Canada Goose. Difficult as it may be to believe, populations especially of the largest subspecies were quite low in the mid-20th century; reintroduction of eastern populations succeeded all too well and this bird is now practically a pest in many areas.

Not quite meeting your criteria because they haven't been as successful yet:

1a. Whooping Crane. An attempt to reintroduce an eastern population (migrating Wisconsin to Florida) to supplement the non-reintroduced (but human-assisted) population that migrates from Alberta to Texas is underway, but not doing very well at the moment. This one may not count as a success, however.

2a. More obscurely an effort to reintroduce the Aplomado Falcon to grasslands in the southwestern US recently begun, though it is still too early to tell whether this effort will be successful.

Entirely failing to meet your criteria, but of interest nonetheless, was the failed attempt to reintroduce the Thick-billed Parrot to the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona in the 1980s.

17Nycticebus
Août 22, 2008, 8:46 pm

Helenoel had to go out of Internet range, so on her behalf, I proclaim lorax the winner of this round!

Regarding Canada geese, when I was a kid it was an exciting treat when they stopped by our pond on the way north. Now, and living in the north, they are just pests that won't waddle out of the bike path.

Congrats lorax. Care to ask another?

18bluejw
Sep 2, 2008, 5:27 pm

Ok I'm hooked into doing a little quizzing.........
A few years ago I was active on the BBC birding chat board and there was a
wonderful fellow there who would post a quiz every month. Each quiz, about
20 or so questions would have an answer that started with the same letter. So one month the letter was J, the next it would be K and so on. Of course being the BBC many of the questions were related to British birds but a lot were not. He was a wonderful gentleman and would also post poetry at times. So with all due respect to Bill Moss I will dig up some of the questions from his quizes and try them out for youall.

For the first one...........the question is name the bird....

It's a party for a dead cat............

19oregonobsessionz
Sep 2, 2008, 9:37 pm

That has to be kittiwake, an arctic gull.

20Helenoel
Sep 2, 2008, 11:18 pm

Oh thanks Oregon- All I was coming up with was Wakerobin- but I know that is a flower (trillium) not a bird...

Thanks also to Nycticebus for stepping in on the last quiz when I was away.

bluejw - this is a good start - next?

21bluejw
Sep 3, 2008, 2:54 pm

Great Oregon- you got it a kittiwake

Now try this one

again a bird name....

don't try them, they landed Icarus in the water.

22oregonobsessionz
Modifié : Sep 3, 2008, 7:29 pm

Ooh - ooh - ooh! I know this bird too. A Waxwing of course.

I grew up in the northeastern US, where the Cedar Waxwing is a beautiful backyard visitor. Hadn't seen a Waxwing in years, until a group of beautiful silent birds suddenly appeared to pick the cherry trees clean. I thought they looked a lot like Cedar Waxwings, but not quite right somehow. Turns out they were Bohemian Waxwings, which are native to Canada, but can also be seen in the northern US.

23Nycticebus
Sep 7, 2008, 3:38 pm

lovely! I too love waxwings. There are mobs of the cedar waxwings feeding in my region just now. Oregan, would you like to ask a quiz question next? If not, maybe we could have more from bluejw's clever BBC questions.

24tropics
Sep 30, 2008, 8:11 pm

Back home following a thoroughly pleasant month-long tent-camping adventure in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. One morning a flock of cedar waxwings charmed us by briefly alighting in a tree near our camp site.

Here's a question to reactivate this site:

A group of Sandwich terns is known collectively as...............................?

25Nycticebus
Modifié : Oct 2, 2008, 2:50 pm

lunch buffet terns?

26tropics
Oct 2, 2008, 5:35 pm

A group of Sandwich terns is known collectively as a "hogey":

http://whatbird.wbu.com/obj/1060/_/Sandwich_Tern.aspx

Also, see "hoagie sandwich":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoagie

27Nycticebus
Oct 4, 2008, 9:50 am

aww, that's terrible.

wanna ask another one tropics?

28tropics
Oct 4, 2008, 1:50 pm

On a more serious note, then (and this is indeed profoundly troubling), how are NSAIDs implicated in the near-extinction of India's vultures?

29Nycticebus
Oct 11, 2008, 8:21 pm

Yes, this is a serious thing. I lived for a while in India, where the daily poisoning of humans was as distressing as that of other animals including birds, but the NSAID deaths are distressing because they are so obviously preventable. Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug used on cattle is the main culprit; it has been banned and there are alternatives, but India being India, many people are still using it and in any case the vultures may have been hit too hard to recover.

Here's the start of a recent article from New Scientist:
(snip)
Rabies tragedy follows loss of India's vultures
* 12 August 2008
* Matt Walker
* Magazine issue 2668
A CONSERVATION catastrophe has become a human tragedy. The mass poisoning that has killed millions of India's vultures may have indirectly claimed the lives of almost 50,000 people, according to an analysis of the wider impacts of the bird die-off.

Since the 1990s, numbers of long-billed, slender-billed and oriental white-backed vultures have declined at an unprecedented rate. All three species could be driven toward extinction within a decade. The cause is a veterinary drug called diclofenac, which was routinely given to cattle. When the cattle died, vultures that fed on their carcasses were poisoned by the drug. Although now banned in India, diclofenac is stlll used to some extent.
(/snip)

Too sad.

30tropics
Oct 12, 2008, 2:22 pm

Thanks, Nyctebus, for your update on the appalling cascade effect of veterinary NSAID-use in India. I would be interested in hearing more about your stay there.

We don't seem to be attracting many participants to this game, but let's keep trying.

How about this? Relatively few birds have a single common name (e.g. verdin). Name five others.

31lorax
Oct 12, 2008, 4:52 pm

30>

Bushtit
Wrentit
Canvasback
Whimbrel
Willet

Here's a question, too:

Bird rainbow: name a bird whose name includes each color of the rainbow. (Six birds, not one with all six!).

32Helenoel
Oct 12, 2008, 5:24 pm

Actually it should be seven for the rainbow- or an infinite number depending on how free-form you want to be

here is one list-
Violet-headed Hummingbird
Indigo Bunting
Blue-footed Booby
Green Heron
Yellow Warbler
Orange-fronted Parakeet
Red-shouldered Hawk

33lorax
Oct 12, 2008, 7:32 pm

32> Should be Violet-crowned hummingbird, but good otherwise. (And that parakeet isn't one I would have thought of -- I had the rather pedestrian Orange-crowned Warbler.)

34Nycticebus
Oct 25, 2008, 8:51 pm

good for you all! Sorry I disappeared for a while (submerged in work). Today on my (bicycle) commute I saw a couple of grebes, which was unusual and pleasant. So, how about a grebe question: What grebe (sadly) seems to be extinct as of the late 1970s?

35tropics
Oct 26, 2008, 3:06 pm

The Colombian grebe was last recorded in the late 1970s.

The American ecologist Anne LaBastille has written about her efforts to save the Atitlan grebe in Mama Poc: An Ecologist's Account Of The Extinction Of A Species. My husband and I visited Lake Atitlan in the early '90s, years after the last birds were seen.

Which American songbird has been negatively impacted by earlier mowing of hay fields?

36Nycticebus
Oct 26, 2008, 9:26 pm

tropics wins it! And gets extra points for working in a book recommendation.

Man, this is getting to be a very sad thread to read. As to message 35, I'm guessing Bobolink, but it's just a guess...

37tropics
Oct 26, 2008, 11:46 pm

Right, Nycticebus, it's the bobolink. And sadly, the early mowing of hay fields isn't the worst of it.

On a lighter note, here's a suggestion that I found on the Massachusetts Audubon site re how to protect oneself from aggressive birds such as the mockingbird while the bird is nesting in your yard (and you still need to be out there weeding, etc.):

Use a helium-filled Mylar balloon attached to your hat or belt, extended 2-3 feet above your head. The movement of the balloon will frighten the bird.

Anyone tried this?

38oregonobsessionz
Oct 27, 2008, 10:51 pm

No mockingbirds here, but I have used mylar balloons to prevent woodpeckers - specifically Northern (red-shafted) flickers - from drilling nest holes in my house. Some gratitude for keeping them well supplied with high quality suet!

I found some websites with woodpecker repellent products, and noted that many of them had large "eyes" to simulate predators. I have found that floating 2 or 3 smiley-face balloons in the general area of activity will chase the woodpeckers away for a while.

39bluejw
Oct 28, 2008, 7:45 pm

Ah tropics I love that...........a balloon on the hat.
I think the neighbors would think me daft...... love it

But back to the Atitlan Grebe, wasn't there a subspecies variation that was
trying to be reintroduced into the lake?

Good questions all.

tropics I believe you are in Green Valley. Have you seen the Sinaloa Wren
in Patagonia

40tropics
Oct 28, 2008, 8:58 pm

Thanks for your suggestions, Oregonobsessionz.

As our neighbors seem to rarely reveal themselves, it's possible I could flush out the more curious among them with a balloon-on-my-hat demo in the front yard.

Bluejw, I must confess that I have yet to drive over to Patagonia early enough to locate the fairly elusive Sinaloa wren. However, there's still time. I have seen it in Mexico, where we hope to spend a month (San Blas), beginning in late November.

So far, I haven't found any info about grebe reintroduction efforts at Lake Atitlan.

Scott Weidensaul's Living On The Wind: Across The Hemisphere With Migratory Birds is proving to be a good source of questions for our birding quiz:

Name five North American passerine species that regularly migrate beyond the Amazon:

41lorax
Oct 29, 2008, 12:58 pm

Passerines, huh? Well, that rules out shorebirds and Swainson's Hawk, now doesn't it?

Well, without looking at my copy of the Weidensaul book, or at any other resources, for that matter, I'd guess that these will be grassland birds, since they'd need to go all the way to Argentina to find suitable habitat in the boreal winter. I know Bobolink is one, but after that I'm drawing a blank. I could cheat and do some searches, of course, but that would be, well, cheating.

42tropics
Oct 29, 2008, 1:09 pm

Why would searching for the answer be deemed "cheating"?

An inquiring mind wants to know.

43bluejw
Oct 29, 2008, 1:50 pm

Lorax is right on the Bobolink. In additon I think the Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, Yellow Warbler and the Veery are four others. Not many seem to go far into South America. Most of our passerines seem to depend on Mexico, Central America, the Islands and Northern South America.

Good question tropics. I don't think it's cheating to do research lorax. That's the way we learn what we don't know. I had to do some checking for this one.

44bluejw
Oct 29, 2008, 1:50 pm

Lorax is right on the Bobolink. In additon I think the Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, Yellow Warbler and the Veery are four others. Not many seem to go far into South America. Most of our passerines seem to depend on Mexico, Central America, the Islands and Northern South America.

Good question tropics. I don't think it's cheating to do research lorax. That's the way we learn what we don't know. I had to do some checking for this one.

45Nycticebus
Oct 29, 2008, 2:03 pm

Good ol' Bobolink again. It's distressing how vulnerable these birds are. Lorax, wanna ask us another one?