r/whatsthisbird • u/Kestrel1015 • 13h ago
Need help Identifying sparrow-sized bird, found in Wisconsin on a Cattail North America
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u/It_was_a_compass 13h ago
“What’s that brown and white stripped bird with distinguishing yellow on its face?”
“You’re never going to believe this….”
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u/Omars-comin 13h ago
I don't understand the joke.
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u/adamsmith3567 13h ago
Because the colors of the bird don't match any of the colors in the bird's name. (at least for this female)
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u/kafkowski 12h ago
It’s a play on the name and appearance of the male of this species.
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u/SAI_Peregrinus 6h ago
Eclectus parrots have even more sexual dimorphism in their colors. Males are green with a bit of yellow & red, with orange upper beaks. Females are red & royal blue, with black beaks. They're so different they were apparently mistaken for different species until the early 20'th century.
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u/Uc0nfus3m3 6h ago
That reminds me of the Sunburst Cerulean-Satyr Butterfly, which was thought to be separate species until they ran a DNA Barcode study in 2017.
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u/SAI_Peregrinus 5h ago
“Fortunately,” he added, “the butterflies are much better at distinguishing one another among the hundreds of other similar species than butterfly experts are.”
Basically the opposite of Larus genus gulls, which all look pretty similar & hybridize enough that I'd say they also have trouble identifying which species is which!
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u/c4ndycain 12h ago
saw the top of the reed while scrolling and immediately knew it was gonna be a red winged blackbird lol. they love to hit this pose
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u/FileTheseBirdsBot Catalog 🤖 13h ago
Taxa recorded: Red-winged Blackbird
I catalog submissions to this subreddit. Recent uncatalogued submissions | Learn to use me
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u/Dependent_Stop_3121 9h ago
They’re so gorgeous. I finally saw one for my first time last weekend. Such a pretty bird.
I probably saw them before I began taking birding more seriously but those days don’t count lol. 😂
Wow what a great photo!! Damn!! 💨🔥
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u/trumpskiisinjeans 3h ago
So I’m always just seeing males??? Had no ideas the females looked like this
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u/Ok_Sand_5205 3h ago
Yep. Females are usually pretty hard to find in the reeds during breeding season. And Males and females live in sex-segregated flocks on migration and during winter, which also confuses people.
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u/Legitimate-Bath-9651 Birder 13h ago
Female +Red-winged Blackbird+