hey tweeties,

yesterday's mystery bird is gaining a lot of attention from a large crowd of scientists, museum curators, birders and people who generally love a good mystery. i have gotten a lot of email from people who are interested in "weird" mystery bird images, such as feathers (as you saw in yesterday's image), roadkill, spread wing preps, tails disappearing into bushes, birds viewed from below and whatnot, so i am very interested to get images from you for this purpose. i do ask several things: i want large images (at least 500 pixels across, and preferably with high-resolution) that are in focus and, if you are donating a picture of feathers, roadkill, a spread wing museum prep or other static birds, please include a ruler or coins or something that can give the viewer a sense of scale. i plan to run a "weird wednesday" mystery bird as long as i have a "weird" image.

the most recently demystified mystery bird was a Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/01/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_110.php

here's today's mystery bird, also courtesy of photographer Joseph Kennedy, for you to identify;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/01/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_133.php

cheers,

GrrlScientist
Devorah
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/
Roosting high up a tree somewhere in Central Park, NYC