Thanks for all the guesses in the blog and on Twitter. DC Birding Blog guessed correctly when he wrote Wilson’s snipe. I love that tail, it looks like a mini red-tailed hawk tail. Tai brings up a good point, note how small the feathers are in relation to the fingers–they are small birds.
Here is a video of Alvaro Jaramillo counting the snipe’s tail feathers (you’ll hear me call it a common snipe, I’m still stuck on it’s old name, it is a Wilson’s snipe). You may remember Alvaro from a video earlier this year on learning to love gull watching. Funny guy and would keep you laughing on one of his tours with Field Guides:
In the background you might notice Mike Bergin taking photos off to the left, and the dude with the budding fro is Hugo who was one of my guides in Guatemala.
It is a really beautiful tail.
Such a short tail eliminates a lot of other possibilities. I noticed the similarity to a Red-tailed Hawk, but there’s no way a Red-tail would be that tiny!
Who’s the dude with the cigar?
That’s fascinating. They really do have a mini red-tailed hawk quality to them. I need to dig up some research on pattern formation in bird feathers. The more I learn the more interesting it gets.