David and all,
I took another look at Rachel's longspur photos and it seems to best fit
Chestnut-collared in my opinion. I looked at a bunch of Chestnut-collared and
Smith's photos online and many of the Chestnut-collareds had fairly stout bills
that are proportionally thicker at the base and more conical in appearance than
the more elongated and proportionally less deep at the base bill shape shown by
most of the Smith's. The general shape and structure of the bird suggests
Chestnut-collared to my eye. The wing projection is short, as is the tail,
contributing to a sort of chubby and stubby shape that I associate with
Chestnut-collared. The face pattern seems plainer than it is on most Smith's as
well. Of course it always worth taking second look at birds like this.
Dave Irons
Beaverton, OR
________________________________
From: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of David
Bailey <davidcbaileyoregon@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2019 5:36 AM
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [obol] Re: Longspur Id. in field guides wanting...
Sorry, auto correct and lack of proofreading has distracted from my post.
Pretty funny though...
On Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 22:27 David Bailey
<davidcbaileyoregon@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:davidcbaileyoregon@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Roy Gerig et al. photos of the Linn County longspur show a buffy bird with
vague underpants streaking and a pale eyering; and a seemingly large bill. The
primary projection seems short, but aside from that, and Roy's initial
observation of the bird giving a 'kiddle' call, the other Mark's make me think
Smith's longspur based on The Sibley Guide to Bird. I am flummoxed by why Sibly
points out things like a pale eyering on one longspur, but not the others, he
also mentions streaking of various description, butvthise are subtle enough as
to not be useful as field identification marks. Fieldmarks by definition ought
to be useful in the field. I think this illustrates that longspur field
identification is still a a frontier in birding. This is not meant to be an
attack on Sibley, of whom I have great praise, or an argument against the
Identification of the plain-looking longspur as a Chestnut-collared, but a
request for clarity.
David
David C. Bailey
Seaside, Oregon
