The COASST Quiz
Click "answer" to see if you're right.
Bird #1
Found: 12/27/2007
Dungeness Spit 0-1
Strait of Juan de Fuca, WA
Bill: 37mm
Wing: 16cm
Tarsus: 32mm
Bird #2
Found: 04/25/2007
Second Beach
La Push, WA
Wing: 17cm
Bird #3
Found: 07/11/2007
Buldir Island D
Buldir, AK
Bill: 14mm
Wing: 15cm
Tarsus: 27mm
Bird #4
Found: 7/28/07
Petrel Cove Beach
Aiktak Island, AK
Bill: 40mm
Bird #5
Found: 02/09/2008
Trinidad State Beach
McKinleyville, CA
Bill: 35mm
Wing: 31cm
Tarsus: 34mm
The Answers
- To some a white wing patch indicates a small waterfowl but bright red legs and a straight looking bill belongs to none other than a Pigeon Guillemot.
- Green-black speculum bordered by a buffy bar above and white below. It’s got to be some type of waterfowl (that was probably a raptor lunch!)—can’t be a American Wigeon—wing is too short, it’s actually a Green-winged Teal.
- Short bill, small body, and stubby wings, points to some kind of murrelet—all the murres have dark bills. The white bill and white tufts above the eye give it away—it’s a breeding Ancient Murrelet.
- Not a gull, this bird is with it’s prominent tube is clearly a tubenose. This bill is a thick and shiny with a nasal tube that extends to almost 40% of the bill length!—it’s a Northern Fulmar.
- Hmmmm...looks like a mew gull, but unlike a mew gull this bird has solid black wing tips and as the name suggests, black legs—it’s Black-legged Kittiwake.