CHECK THIS OUT! July/August Birding photo quiz - mystery bird

This email was sent to the IDFrontiers mailing list last Friday. I strongly urge you to check out the pdf and see what you think the three birds in flight are. Hint: they are definitely woodpeckers. LARGE woodpeckers...

"Hello, Birders.

The July/August 2007 issue of Birding was recently mailed out, and we are doing something very different, this go-around, with our Photo Quiz column. We'd like for you, the members of the birding community--ABA members and non-member alike--to help us identify the birds in this month's photo quiz.

The photo quiz, which appears on p. 96 of the July/August issue, is reproduced in its entirety as a 144K PDF on the ABA website. Check it out at:

americanbirding.org/pubs/birding/archives/vol39no4p96.pdf

Please pay exceedingly close attention to the instructions. In
particular: analyses MUST NOT EXCEED 300 WORDS, and responses must be submitted by e-mail to Chris Wood, clw37@cornell.edu, and Ted Floyd, tfloyd@aba.org, NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, 20 JULY 2007. We will publish in the September/October 2007 issue all analyses that seriously attempt to identify the three birds in the image.

Oh, and just to whet everybody's appetites: The photo, taken on 21 November 2006, is from a mature swamp forest near Florida's Choctawhatchee River...

-------------------------------

Ted Floyd
Editor, Birding

American Birding Association
P. O. Box 7974
Boulder, Colorado 80306-7974

303-444-6363
tedfloyd AT aba.org

Please visit the web site of the
American Birding Association:
http://www.americanbirding.org"

:think:

I looked more closely at these blurry birds, and the lowest one on the right appears to have legs trailing behind it. I'm leaning towards Yellow-Crowned Night Herons, now...

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers would show white flashes, I believe, even in the dullest of photo. I lean towards Green Heron which these birds appear resemble in shape and are known to travel in small groups just like the photo shows.