ML275629181

Age and sex

Juvenile, Unknown sex - 1

Observation details

NE Big Piute. This one gave me pause because depending on the light, the bill looked pale, culmen looked straight and back was cold brown which led me to consider Yellow-billed. Thanks to Mark, Curtis, Kimball, Paul and Louis for valuable feedback. Great learning opportunity! Kimball's feedback: "Too dark (especially on head/crown) for Yellow-billed, and too much dark around the eye (there's a white eye ring, but not the broader pale area around the eye I'd expect in Y-b. Also, bill too dark, especially along outer half of culmen." Loius' feedback: "that is a juvenile Common Loon. Because it is a young bird, you have to be careful using the bill shape characters of adult Yellow-billed. I think young birds can have bill shapes more alike to each other, that is Common looks more strongly up-angled from gonys to tip and Yellow-billed can appear weakly decurved along the culmen. The dark culmen to about 2/3 or 3/4 and the decurved (=concave) arch from gonys to base (lower edge of mandibular ramis) are both good characters of Common Loon. Even on young Yellow-billed, that lower edge would be recurved (or convex), and I doubt more than <1/4 of the culmen would be dark, if that."

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P900

ISO

110

Focal length

321 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

2096 pixels x 1573 pixels

Original file size

495.92 KB