Hello, eco-zone neighbor! :)
Madrone, Bay and Torreya are all some of my favorite taxa both to observe and to ID - they’re like old friends. To me they seem very distinctive, but a lot of people still have trouble with them, so I try to review them often.
1 Like
Blue jays are one of my favorites to photograph. I’ve got four individuals that frequent my yard for peanuts and I always get a good view of them. I’m a little embarrassed by how often I submit observations of them, but who doesn’t like blue jays?
8 Likes
There is a local bird, it is called Chara Yucateca, which is Yucatán Jay. I saw a group of them sitting on low tree branches in woods near a ruin the last day before we began quarantining here. I was so happy to see them because I love this type of bird. They make a lovely chattery, social noise.
I think it must be related to your pretty jay, a southern cousin.
5 Likes
They’re in different branches of one subfamily, but far away from crows and common jays.
@fffffffff You are considerably more knowledgeable than I am, so please forgive me for being slightly slow to understand.
They are both in the same Family (Crows, Jays, and Magpies, Family Corvidae). Correct?
But then they diverge and are not the same Genus, obviously. The one here is Cyanocorax Jays (Genus Cyanocorax), the one she observes is Blue and Steller’s Jays (Genus Cyanocitta). Right?
And crows would be a third Genus, Genus Corvus, no?
Apologies if I have muddled it. I adore birds but know next to nothing.
(BUT if I have understood correctly mine and hers are still distant cousins! Whee! Saludos!)
3 Likes
You can check the phylogenetic tree shown on Wiki page, each taxon has a “point” of divergence, so you can see on this picture two lineages within subfamily Cyanocoracinae split before two genera you mentioned correctly emerged from their ancestors, but they’re still much closer than magpies and crows to them.
5 Likes
Mine are some common locals
Nothing embarrassing to see here.
My favorites though are when I click the threatened option:
6 Likes
My top species is whichever bird will be my next lifer.
To a twitcher, this wouldn’t be surprising. But I have a friend who insists on proper birding, i.e. diligent and frequent visits to several of his local patches in Oxfordshire, not to mention a keen desire to find birds on his own possibly at the expense of a twitch. I think that this is representative of many ‘birders’, who would be bemused to hear that I am much more passionate about my next lifer than about any species already on my list.
2 Likes
I moved here from the east coast so most are still kinda exotic to me.
To add to the usefulness of common observations, I have been uploading madrone and just recently realized it suggests a leaf miner sometimes as an alternative and I realized I see LOTS of the leaves with mines so I have something new and interesting to upload now.
5 Likes
I don’t know if it’s exactly embarrassing, but 13 of my top 15 spots are taken up by odonata. Top two are Blue Dashers (Pachydiplax longipennis) and Great Spreadwings (Archilestes grandis). They’re willing to hold still, which makes them better subjects than most.
Now, if I ever get all of my dasher / spreadwing / hummingbird backlog uploaded, that probably will be embarassing.
3 Likes
So this preponderance of birds can be entirely blamed on the fact that I mainly upload mushrooms and I spend three months of the year staring at birds in my backyard because almost all the mushrooms are gone
Honorable mention to the Sanderlings at #13, the result of one vacation chilling on the beach with nothing but sanderlings to take pictures of
5 Likes
Sanderlings are one of those birds you just have to take tons of pictures of.
1 Like
They’re so flipping cute. I was picky with pictures too, I could have added WAY more but I figure I didn’t want to explode everyone’s feed with a million sanderling pictures
2 Likes
I mean, most of my observations are in cities. And even in the wildlife refuge and state parks I go to mallards are reasonably common and approachable (much more so than the freaking buffleheads)
2 Likes
8 of my top 10 observed species are from La Réunion. I went there 5 times.
The 1st one is Aphloia theiformis, the only species in Family Aphloiaceae which is noticeable! It is common in the wet locations of La Réunion. Its little white fruits are unique. (I knew only Cephalotus follicularis in a similar situation, single species in a family). At first sight, it looks like a Myrtaceae, but it is not!
The 2 others are from metropolitan France.
I made many observations of Malva sylvestris because I was very surprised to be, on iNat, the only observer of this species with white flowers (see here), close to the France/Belgium boundary. I identified them as such (correct?), based on the flower shape and leaf shape that were exactly similar to those with purple flowers. I am also found of the color and larger petals of Malva sylvestris ssp. mauritiana (see here), presently attempting to grow it from seeds. Two good reasons for having this (common) species in my top 10.
I made many observations of Cynoglossum officinale, of different sizes, all at the same location, sand dunes near the sea. (It seems to grow in 2 years, provided all observations are of the same species). I never saw this species before and it impressed me much.
5 Likes
Posting again now that I have a few more obs – can’t believe solitaires joined my top 5 from just one week in Santa Fe.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.