I confess, I am too lazy to be a birder, but I'm always intrigued by birds. Saw one yesterday flying by me at Mirador beach, about the size of a large gull, but with broader wings. Long sharp red bill, black body except for white stripes on top of the wings. Anyone have any idea what I saw?
Any birders?
- Thread starter mel150
- Start date
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bahiatrader
Guest
That could possibly be a cormorant. There's several different spiecies of cormorants, some having red or magenta beaks and heads. Cormorants have longer necks and broader wings than gulls. They're a diving bird. I don't know about white stripes on the wings, although some cormorants have white on them. I'm not really a birder either, but a lot of my biologist friends are. I learned a litttle from them through osmosis. I know what a phainopepla is and I can tell a boat-tailed grackle from a lesser grackle. My guess would be cormorant.
La Huerita
Guest
Cormorant is a good guess, though I've never seen one with the combination of a sharp red bill and white on its wings. Was it black all over or did you just see it from the top? I'd guess maybe an American oystercatcher, but it has white underparts. Hmmm...
Here's a link to a pic of oystercatchers in flight, looking at them from above. Did it look anything like that?
http://www.earthethics.com/oystercatchers1small.jpg
(How come the code doesn't work any more?) A black skimmer is a possibility, too, but they are also white on the bottom, some white around the lower face and white stripes on the wings. Neato birds!
Here's a link to a pic of oystercatchers in flight, looking at them from above. Did it look anything like that?
http://www.earthethics.com/oystercatchers1small.jpg
(How come the code doesn't work any more?) A black skimmer is a possibility, too, but they are also white on the bottom, some white around the lower face and white stripes on the wings. Neato birds!
La Huerita
Guest
How cool! I didn't know there were oystercatchers in RP! Now I'll be on the lookout for them. They are really neat looking birds, and fun to watch. I even think the name is neat (I was going to say "catchy" but the unintended pun was too awful) :roll:mel150 said: