The last few days I've been out hiking and enjoying the spring. It's been a good time to put my ear to the test. Thought I'd record a few songs and calls and give everyone else a chance to practice birding by ear as well. Below are a series of videos each with 1 or more birds on them. See if you can get them all. Then there's a bonus picture at the bottom. Make your guesses in the comments. I'll reveal the answers in a few days. Good luck!

Quiz #1 - There are 2 birds singing in this clip. Hint: one is in the finch family and the other is in the sparrow family.

Quiz #2 - Again, there are 2 bird species to ID in this clip. Both are calling repeatedly.

Quiz #3 - This song reminds me of springtime.

Quiz #4 - Even though there is a brief visual of the bird in flight, this is a tough one. Listen for the repeated call as the bird flies away. You may want to turn your sound up a bit to hear it. Sorry for my voiceover excitement. Hint: The feathers below (Quiz #5) didn't come from this bird, but one that is close in relation.

Quiz #5 - Can you identify what species of bird these feathers came from?

Seems like I've caught the illustration bug at least for the moment.  After finishing the Rufous-crested Coquette last week I started on a couple more illustrations.  But not before I had a print made of the coquette--and put it in a matte and frame:

5" x 7" print in 11" x 14" cream matte with 2" black frame

(click image for larger version)

If you are interested in a print,  I can have more like this made.  A photo quality print on matte stock costs $35.  A framed and matted version can be picked up for $60.  Just let me know what you want at western.tanager@gmail.com and we can work something out.

But like I said above the coquette was just the beginning.  Maybe it's the fact that the birds of Peru are so colorful and amazing to look at that I just want to make my own renditions.  Right after I finished the first one I started working on a second bird, that was even more stunning than the Coquette--a Golden Tanager:

Golden Tanager about 50% Complete

Right now it's about 50% finished.  I have a lot of details to add but got a good start on it.  The Golden Tanager is an absolutely striking species and the color is so vibrant.  I've worked on this one an hour or two most nights this week and will probably finish it up this weekend.

I also started working on a Peruvian specialty this week--a bird with one of the coolest names, the Bearded Mountaineer! Cool right?  It's a species of hummingbird endemic to southern Peru and has some very stunning but simple features.  This one is about 10% finished so it's probably over a week out, but you can see the various states from beginning to end with what I've done so far.

Bearded Mountaineer about 10% Complete

You can see how I start with the basic shapes then go into smaller and smaller details as I layer the design.  On this last one I have the basic shapes, and most of the low level details laid out.  I have a at least a couple more birds in mind to work on in the next couple weeks.  I'll be sure to share those as well as the finished versions of the above when they're done.

If you have something you want illustrated let me know and I can see what I can do.

Rufous-crested Coquette Illustration

click on the image for full size version

Growing up I liked to draw things.  In my grade school years and teens I took art classes learning to paint, and to illustrate.  When I got into birding I started to sketch and draw a ton of birds and always wanted to illustrate a book with birds, or contribute to a field guide.  When I went to college and decided to continue to pursue art in a Studio Art program I shifted from drawing to photography.  I loved what  you could do with a camera, and in my college years it was the dawn of the digital age.  I took a computer illustration course at the end of my freshman year.  After all, you had to have a breadth of classes for the degree, and I figured it was worth a shot to see what could be done on a computer.  My first illustrations were simple, and usually contained little detail.  As I became more comfortable with it I was able to create illustrations with subtle details, and over time was able to crank designs out pretty quick.  The class was the only digital class that my college offered at the time and after it was over everything I did was on my own.  

I shifted from illustrations into photo manipulation as I tried to figure out where I was going in life--I only illustrated a few things after that first year, and mostly forgot about what an art it was.  By my senior year I started doing web design and did a little illustration for the designs, but no full scale drawings.  And after I graduated it was much of the same.  I shifted my work to user interface design, and most of what I was doing had to do with laying out pages and figuring out how to make a graceful experience for people visiting a website.  I was no longer an illustrator.

I still had to illustrate the occasional icon, or graphic, but nothing that was overly complicated and nothing that required a ton of detail.  Occasionally I feel like drawing something and will hop in and give it a shot.  Usually, I get frustrated and just walk away from what I am working on because it isn't turning out how I hoped.  This week I had an urge to draw a hummingbird.  I started and the first couple versions jsut sucked.  The shapes were off, the details were too big, and I just wasn't liking the final product.  So last night I sat down and dove into a drawing.  I picked up again this morning and finished everything up.  The picture above is what I came up with.  I worked off this picture:

Photograph from Kolibri Expedtions

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  This species is one of the birds I hope to see when I go to Peru this fall--a truly spectacular hummingbird.  I was able to get a lot of detail without having to draw any real feathers.  The individual lines helped create the feathered look.  

Based off this first try I might have to do a few more--it has been a long time since I have seriously illustrated and I lost some of my finesse, but I really enjoy it and it's not something anyone is really doing (semi-realistic photo illustrations of birds).

In any event I hope you enjoy! 

When birding, the most obvious choice is usually the correct one. For instance, a Red-tailed Hawk with a whitish head or tail in Utah is almost certainly a Harlan's (top, Utah), not a Krider's (bottom, Oklahoma). Not saying a Krider's couldn't be seen here, that would be silly...birds have wings. Just saying that the likely candidate should be considered and ruled out before accepting the less obvious choice.

This is true for most birds....of course rarities occur, but turning something into the rarer bird while overlooking the obvious choice is easy to do. Also, its easy to focus on plumage when trying to identify a rare bird or separating two similar-looking birds. But structure and call are often the clinching trait to note. I often see posts about songbirds, shorebirds, etc. that are tough ID's, and the call or shape is never mentioned. I understand, they don't always call, but sometimes they do. Just a post to keep in mind, I don't know it all of course...just like to blog.

I have many accipiter posts I'd like to get to, but here is a quick one, and a subject that has been talked about recently. Accipiters will always be tricky, especially Sharp-shinned vs. Cooper's Hawk, since they look so similar. Many Sharpies have very rounded or slightly rounded tails (especially females), and some Cooper's have square-tipped tails for certain reasons. Here are some examples. Also note how some Cooper's (especially males) can appear small-headed and stocky overall in certain poses or instances.

One trait only does not make an accurate accipiter ID, it is a combination of traits, so don't get caught up on a single trait that "distracts" you from the rest of the bird. There is much to say about this group of hawks, so more to come.

Hope this helps...and if anyone has a request on a specific subject regarding raptors to discuss, please feel free to bring it up.