Outdoors
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m sending in three-quarters of a photo for today’s column and taking the rest of the week off.
Just kidding. Photos have been the bane of my existence for the last few weeks. Birds that change plumage seasonally have now done so, and many don’t look like themselves. It’s hard enough to identify birds in confusing fall plumage. It can be even harder to identify them from a photo.
You wouldn’t think so. You would think that a photo gives you plenty of time to study a bird’s field marks, perhaps comparing the image to pictures in a guidebook. Alas, it often doesn’t work that way.
A photo might display every feature of the bird captured by the lens. But that photo is limited to one angle of viewing, perhaps showing a few field marks but concealing others. For instance, consider two very similar shorebirds — the greater yellowlegs and its diminutive cousin, the lesser yellowlegs. There is a size difference between them, but that’s not always helpful at a distance unless they’re standing together.
The easiest way to identify which yellowlegs you’re viewing is to study the bill. The bill of a greater yellowlegs is longer, and often looks a little upturned. But if the bird in the photo is looking toward you or away, the bill is not visible at all. Darn.
Photos can also distort a bird’s image. Overexposure can wash out details. Underexposure can conceal subtle colors. Reflected light from foliage can tint the bird’s color greenish. Sunlight plays color tricks on birds with iridescent colors, such as grackles and hummingbirds.
I’m always amazed at how much perspective matters. Unless the bird is photographed standing next to a recognizable object, it’s very difficult to judge the size of a bird from a photo. When readers ask me to identify a bird for them, size is the hardest thing to determine, and size makes a world of difference.
Multiple photos of a mystery bird might provide more detail, but they still fail to document other key clues, such as movement and location. For instance, the palm warbler is a bird that’s abundant along the Orono Bog Boardwalk. It can be a little difficult to ID in its autumn plumage. But it’s the only warbler that bobs its tail, and it’s one of the few warblers that is comfortable on the ground — two clues that a photo would miss.
A lot of flycatchers look similar, but only the eastern phoebe bobs its tail. Well, OK, the black phoebe and Say’s phoebe also bob their tails, but they’re out in the western U.S.
I’ve been torturing myself lately, looking at bird photos online, and testing my ability to identify difficult birds. It’s not going well. I’m often wrong, or at least uncertain.
Facebook causes most of my anguish. Many groups post hard-to-identify bird photos. The Maine Birds group is a perennial favorite. Challenging photos also appear on the Maine Wildlife group page. Occasionally there’s a tester on the Maine Bird Feeders page.
For a wicked hard test, try What’s this Bird? — American Birding Association. Every post contains an identification challenge. Worse, many are about birds from other parts of the country — birds that are unfamiliar to Mainers. I like to look at comments from all the people guessing at the ID, just to see who else is struggling as much as I am.
Birds spin off all kinds of identification clues. Photos capture only one of those clues — a single visual angle. This whole exercise reminds me how much I rely on sound, behavior, and habitat to identify birds in the field.
Even the images in a guidebook can be a trifle misleading. Birds are usually depicted with all their field marks shown. We seldom see birds so clearly in real life. Worse, while guidebooks are good at pointing out important field marks, they are usually just arrows pointed at features. They don’t prioritize. Some field marks are more important than others. Pop quiz: what would be the most important feature to notice on a common yellowthroat?
This time of year, adult birds take on a duller plumage. Females can be quite dull. But both adults are easier than their kids. Immature birds this time of year vary a lot, and few guidebooks have enough pages to show all that variation. For some immature females, I give up and cry uncle.
Maybe a picture isn’t worth a thousand words.
