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

Answer

Bird #2

Found: 04/25/2007
Second Beach
La Push, WA
Wing: 17cm

Answer

Bird #3

Found: 07/11/2007
Buldir Island D
Buldir, AK
Bill: 14mm
Wing: 15cm
Tarsus: 27mm

Answer

Bird #4

Found: 7/28/07
Petrel Cove Beach
Aiktak Island, AK
Bill: 40mm

Answer

Bird #5

Found: 02/09/2008
Trinidad State Beach
McKinleyville, CA
Bill: 35mm
Wing: 31cm
Tarsus: 34mm

Answer

The Answers

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.