I left the wildlife submissions in Chicago, but John Avise, who has a string of hundreds of uninterrupted Sunday photo posts, sent me a new bird-themed batch on Friday, and so the streak continues. John’s test and IDs are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.
Compass Headings
Several North American bird species have compass headings in their official common names. These are the subject of this Sunday’s post. Generally, these names reflect the portion of the continent where these birds can be found, but sometimes there are counterpart species that reside in the Southern hemisphere, in which case a “Northern” in the species name simply refers to anywhere in North America. For example, other species of Cardinals, Mockingbirds, Pintails, and Shovelers reside in South America.
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis):
Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana):
Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus):
Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis):
Eastern Screech-Owl (Otus asio):
Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus):
Western (California) Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica):
Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana):
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis):
Northern Parula Warbler (Parula americana):
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis):
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos):
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta):
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata):
In the yard outside my field headquarters in SE Alberta, many years ago, a Western Kingbird occupied the west side, and an Eastern Kingbird the east side. Another case of nominative determinism, but at least they’re consistent.
Many people have accused me of conscious nominative determinism, because I love birds and my surname is pronounced “Avis”.
Wonderful photos as always! That Eastern Screech-Owl has a very suspicious look on its face.
Whenever I see a picture of a bluebird, I’m reminded of when I was in Kindergarten. One day we were given a paper with an outline of a bird, and we were instructed to color it to look like a real bird. I colored the head and wings blue and the breast orange.
The teacher asked what bird I made. I said it was a bluebird. She jumped all over me for not following directions as she claimed there was no bird that looked like what I colored.
How awful. I hope she learned some new things over the years.
Bluebirds are among my favourites.
Yes, wonderful as always!
If no-one else is going to make a pun about cardinal directions, I guess I will…
Gorgeous shots, John. Thanks!