mystery bird
Posted by Leah Reino on May 25, 2006
Q: I was horseback riding by a creek in the late afternoon, and in the shallow water near the bank I saw a bird. It was brown, with a white stripe around its neck. It looked like a snipe, but was the size of a large duck. What was it?
Habitat: stream/river
State: New York
Habitat: stream/river
A: I cannot definitively identify the bird by your description. I immediately thought you might have seen a Killdeer, but it makes a distinctive alarm call when disturbed and it's white underneath. You would have noticed that. I can narrow it down to a few other groups of birds, but you'll need to consult a Filed Guide to look over the possibilities.
I'll make a few assumptions from your decription: It's a wading bird because it has long legs and was in shallow water; it has a long bill like a snipe; and it's a large bird, but not a duck. Therefore, the bird you saw was a heron species, a plover species or a sandpiper species. I hope this helps!
Jim Berry ( May 26, 2006)