What kind of birds are these?

At the state park I have been going to the last few days which is only 1/2 hour from my house, I have seen about 6 birds that I have never seen before. I have been able to find most online but still have not found these two. the first two are the same bird, justdifferent compositon and granted, the last picture is a bad (very bad) shot but it was the only one I could get before it took off and then I never saw another like it. It was very small and almost looked like a baby woodpecker without the red.

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Thanks for your help!


Denise

The first two are some type of blackbird or grackle in the family icteridae.


The last is either a downy or hairy (not baby) woodpecker. They are normally small. The difference between downy and hairy woodpeckers is very small, maybe Joel can help us out.

denise, the first 2 pics i would say are european starlings in their winter plumage, i'm not 100% sure, cause where i am, they go south, and i dont see them untill they are back and in their breeding colours, glossy speckled black with an irredescent purple head. and the 3rd pic, i agree with brendan, its either a downy or hairy woodpecker, only difference is size, the downy is the smaller of the two, but they look almost identical, except for size.


jim


edit: i take back what i said about the first 2 pics.......they could be a colour variation of an adult female redwing blackbird. now i am researching, going thru my sibleys guide ;)

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Originally Posted by lynx0069

i take back what i said about the first 2 pics.......they could be a colour variation of an adult female redwing blackbird.

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I think you are right ....
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/id

Also, it says it is similar to the cowbird, which I saw at the same time!

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Thank so much for your help, Jim! I do believe the other is a type of woodpecker also.

Denise

The first two look like Female or Immature Redwing blackbirds. If there are males with the red mark on their wings around, thats probably it. I get a lot of the Redwing blackbirds at my feeder, male, female, and immature males.





http://mt-spokane-photography.smugmu...97_rcvtS-L.jpg

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Originally Posted by scalesusa

The first two look like Female or Immature Redwing blackbirds. If there are males with the red mark on their wings around, thats probably it. I get a lot of the Redwing blackbirds at my feeder, male, female, and immature males.





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Yes, that is what they are I believe they are. There were plenty of the male red-winged black birds around! Your photo is beautiful! What lens did you use? Would you mind posting the EXIF?


Thanks,
Denise

Denise; as Lynx (corrected) and Scaleusa stated; thefirst 2 are female RWBs and the 3rd one is a female Downy.


Downy and Hairy WP's are actually pretty easy to differentiate by looking at the beak....the Downy's is small, as in your pic and the Hairy's is quite long and actually the Hairy is quite a bit larger in size.


This example isn't a great pic, but it does show the differences (beak and body sizes)between the 2. Both are females w/the Downy in the lower left.


http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...swinginWPs.jpg

I took this with my 1d MK III and a new 100-400mm lens I just acquired. It was taken at 400mm, 1/1250 sec, f8, ISO 1000 and cropped quite a bit. The lens is about as sharp as a person could expect from a 4X zoom. Focus is ok at 400mm in good light, but with a 1.4 extender, it really struggles.


Here is a example taken this morning with the 1D MK III, 100-400mm + 1.4X. I used flash with a better beamer that just arrived in today's mail, so I was checking it out. You do lose sharpness with the extender, but the image prints very nicely on 8.5 X 11 paper, and woii also look good on larger sizes as well.


1/300 sec f/14, ISO 200





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