ABA Photo Quiz

ABA Online Bird Photo Quiz 55

Answer

Bird Photo

Habitat is often a great way to identify birds. In this case, we should have little doubt that we are dealing with a waterbird, and the waves certainly suggest a seabird. The overall structure looks good for the family Procellariidae—medium-sized seabirds including petrels and shearwaters. Looking a bit more carefully we see that we actually have quite a good view of this bird's bill—a superb starting point for identifying seabirds from photos (in the field, you would typically start with flight style). Here we see that the bird has a relatively thick bill of moderate length that appears yellowish with a pinkish tip. That odd shape and pattern to the bill is only shown by one species in the ABA area—Northern Fulmar. I suppose one could make the argument that Cory's Shearwater or Pink-footed Shearwaters have similar bills, but those are much longer. Not only that, shearwaters have much longer wings than this bird. The short stocky wings and short thick neck are also enough to identify this bird as a Northern Fulmar.

This Northern Fulmar was photographed in Marin County, California in September 2007.

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The following people (listed by submission date beginning with the earliest) submitted correct answers for the October Bird Photo Quiz—Northern Fulmar:

  1. Aaron Bilyeu, Placerville, CA
  2. Brandon Percival, Pueblo West, CO
  3. Stephen Joly, Kamloops, BC
  4. David Bell, Sault Ste. Marie, ON
  5. Alex Lin-Moore, Houston, TX
  6. Terri Everett, Big Rapids, MI
  7. Nathan Swick, Chapel Hill, NC
  8. Alex Hale, New York, NY
  9. Malkolm Boothroyd, Whitehorse, Yukon
  10. Joshua Gahagan, Oakham, MA
  11. joe trezza, New York, New York
  12. Karl Erich Mayer, Saint Clair Shores, MI
  13. Aaron Hulsey, Smiths Grove, Ky
  14. John Bissell, Grimes, IA
  15. Eva Pratt, Inman, SC
  16. Sam Pratt, Inman, SC
  17. Tom Benson, San Bernardino, CA
  18. Alan Dupuis, Cambridge, NY
  19. Thomas Snetsinger, Brownsville, OR
  20. Wayne Meyer, Denison, TX
  21. Sam Burckhardt, Chicago, IL
  22. Mark Rosenstein, Cambridge, MA
  23. Sam Koenen, Bozeman, MT
  24. Ben Wieland, Hackensack, MN
  25. Steve Hampton, Davis, CA
  26. Phil Chaon, Cleveland, OH
  27. David Copplestone, Lakefield, Ontario
  28. Don Burt, Anaheim, CA
  29. Ted Stiritz, Russellville, AR
  30. Greg Schrott, Sebring, FL
  31. Greg Gillson, Hillsboro, OR
  32. Jamie Simmons, Corvallis, OR
  33. Brent Campos, San Jose, CA
  34. Tim Shelmerdine, West Linn, OR
  35. Chris Burney, Lakeland, FL
  36. Amy St.Pierre, Kelly, WY
  37. Russ Namitz, Coos Bay, OR
  38. Cinda Crosley, Pflugerville, TX
  39. Matt Yawney, Chelsea, MI
  40. Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA
  41. Steven Holt, Coos Bay, OR
  42. Brendan Fogarty, Nassau Co., NY
  43. George Cresswell, Colorado Springs, CO
  44. Randy Mehoves, St. Cloud, MN
  45. Graham Etherington, Norwich, UK
  46. Szilard J. Daroczi, Tirgu Mures, Romania
  47. Chris Warren, Portland, OR
  48. Jon Atwood, Keene, NH
  49. Aaron Boone, Columbus, Ohio
  50. David Pavlik, Marquette, MI
  51. Liis Veelma, Winnipeg MB Canada
  52. Thomas Hall, Livermore, CO
  53. Bill Maynard, Colorado Springs, CO
  54. Ferenc Domoki, Winston-Salem, NC
  55. Lee Barnes, Seattle, WA
  56. Thomas Lechleitner, Fort Lupton, CO
  57. Ed Harper, Sacramento, CA
  58. Greg Zupansic, Eugene, OR
  59. Luke Seitz, Falmouth, ME
  60. Jim Mountjoy, Galesburg IL
  61. Brent Bomkamp, Norhtport, NY
  62. Richard Garrigues, San Antonio de Belen, Heredia, Costa Rica
  63. Avery Bartels, Nelson, BC, Canada
  64. Melissa Fratello, Niagara Falls, NY
  65. Matt Baumann, ABQ, NM
  66. Gary W. Potter, Sanger, CA
  67. Alan J. Knue, Seattle, WA
  68. Claude Auchu, La Pocatière, Québec
  69. Al Guarente, Media, Pa
  70. Ian Davies, Medford, MA
  71. Edith Prince, Seattle, WA
  72. Alex Dopp, Ann Arbor, MI
  73. Nell Haberman, Portland, OR
  74. John Kuenzli, Columbus, OH
  75. Marcelo Brongo, Barcelona, Spain
  76. Seth Cutright, West Bend, WI
  77. Aaron R. Polichar, San Diego, CA
  78. Marianne Reid, Kingsville, Ontario, Canada
  79. Kevin Kerr, Guelph, ON
  80. Owen McMurtrey, Chicago, IL
  81. Philip Kline, Tucson, AZ
  82. Blake Mathys, Milltown, NJ
  83. Joshua Covill, Columbia Falls, MT
  84. Neil Gilbert, orange, ca
  85. Robert Furrow, Somerville, MA
  86. Robert Mottershead, Philadelphia, PA
  87. Adrian Azpiroz, St. Louis, MO
  88. Charles Rossa, Manassas, Va
  89. Corey Husic, Kunkletown, PA
  90. Erik Stromberg, San Anselmo, CA
  91. Kevin M Hill, Shoreline, WA
  92. Eric Huston, Tumwater, WA
  93. Andy Johnson, Ann Arbor, MI
  94. Marlene Jay Cashen, Veradale, WA
  95. Brad Wilkinson, Tallmadge, OH
  96. Brian McAllister, Saranac Lake, NY
  97. Benoit Dorion, Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada
  98. Elaine MacPherson, Sierra Madre CA
  99. Phil Crisp, Winston-Salem, NC
  100. Gabe Johnson, Grinnell, IA
  101. Julie Cocke, Jacksonville, FL
  102. Jennie MacFarland, Tucson, AZ
  103. Wendy Poinsot, San Francisco, CA
  104. Knut Hansen, Renton, WA
  105. Matthew Schneider, Silverton, OR
  106. Chloe Scott, Muir Beach, CA
  107. James McKay, Mesa, AZ
  108. Alex Ewing, Rocky Hill, NJ
  109. Petro Pynnönen, Helsinki, Finland
  110. Jerry Jourdan, Wyandotte, MI
  111. Michael Woodruff, Spokane, WA
  112. Doug Weidemann, Silang, Cavite
  113. Matt Pike, Lacey WA
  114. Pam Baum, Tucson, AZ
  115. Jim Kopitzke, Mesa AZ
  116. Eleanor Proctor, Peterborough, Ontario
  117. Ben Young, Kalispell, MT
  118. Angie Langie, Jipijapa, Ecuador
  119. Steve Steimel, Severna Park, Md
  120. Harry Hooper, Tallahassee, FL
  121. Travis A. Mahan, Decatur, IL
  122. Sarah J. Zastrow, Riverdale, MD
  123. Robert Doster, Albuquerque, NM
  124. Urs Geiser, Woodridge, IL
  125. James P, Smith, Amherst, MA
  126. Brad Hammond, Brooksville, FL
  127. Anthony H. Bledsoe, Pittsburgh, PA
  128. Richard Jeffers, Santa Clara, CA
  129. Paul Matthews, Ottawa, ON
  130. Elaine Long, E. Brunswick, NJ
  131. Rick Poulin, Ottawa, Ontario
  132. Myles Falconer, Lakefield, ONTARIO
  133. Linda Swanson, San Francisco, CA
  134. Tim Hochstetler, millersburg OH
  135. Ron Pozzi, Granite Bay, CA
  136. Tim Hajda, Nebraska
  137. Eddie Mundall, Yreka, CA
  138. William Jones, Shropshire, England

How Did You Compare?

As stated in the quiz rules, answers must consist simply of the Common or English name exactly as it appears in the ABA Checklist.

The following list shows the number of submissions for each species guessed.

Northern Fulmar
138
Pink-footed Shearwater
10
Herring Gull
5
Great Skua
4
South Polar Skua
4
Black-footed Albatross
3
Cory's Shearwater
3
Ring-billed Gull
3
Mottled Petrel
2
Belcher's Gull
1
Blue-footed Booby
1
Brown Skua
1
California Gull
1
Fea's/Zino's Petrel
1
Great Black-backed Gull
1
Greater Shearwater
1
Herald Petrel
1
Leach's Petrel
1
Long-tailed Jaeger
1
Mew Gull
1
Parasitic Jaeger
1
Pomarine Jaeger
1
Short-tailed Albatross
1
Short-tailed Shearwater
1
Thayer's Gull
1
White-faced Storm-Petrel
1

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The photo and answer for this quiz were supplied by Chris Wood.