I’m certainly not a good enough birder that I can immediately identify all the birds I see while out birding. In fact, I identify an awful lot of them after I have the picture open on the computer. That’s the way I learned to identify most of the birds I can readily identify.
Here, however, is a bird I’ve been unable to identify despite spending several hours online and going through my apps. I found it in the Malheur wetlands and knew immediately that I’d never seen before.
I saw a single bird on a post,
so I assumed (perhaps mistakenly) that it was a young bird wanting to be fed, particularly when it called out to another bird flying by.
The birds were obviously chasing insects as they flew back and forth. occasionally hovering in one spot.
The birds’ distinctive wing shape
made me think that it would be easy to identify, but it hasn’t been. Hopefully a reader who is a birder will be able to identify them for me.
Black tern? http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Tern/id
I think you’re right, Lorianne. Thanks.
Somehow I identify terns with the ocean, not high desert, but their range does extend to southeastern Oregon according to my app.
I believe they prefer inland water, so southeastern Oregon make sense.
Wonderful photos of the bird, especially the one showing its wing shape.
Thanks. I tried to include enough different viewpoints that someone familiar with the bird could identify it.
This turns out to be one of the two “firsts” on this trip.
I don’t know what it is, but it’s GORGEOUS: subdued colors, dramatic shapes.
Not being in the US I wouldn’t know Loren, but your photographs give so many good views that I am sure you will get a reply.