Several people emailed in the correct name of the bird Butch Schulte photographed that was pictured in the April 11 edition of the newspaper.
Jeremy Ridlbauer, our local bird expert, came up with the name first. “This is a white-winged crossbill. Nice photo! Don’t get to see them like that very often,” said Jeremy.
Gayle Mcquatters answered, “The bird is a male white-winged crossbill.” Jerry simply replied, “white-winged crossbill.” Also coming up with the right name was Alice West, Ann Russ, and Kathy and Jan Horak. The Horak’s said, “We have been seeing it all week at Oberg Mountain. What a beauty!”
John Brooberg replied, “Two Barred Crossbill” and Al McGowan filled in some blanks with his answer. “The bird is a White-winged Crossbill. I assume it was photographed in Minnesota this April? Or is the photo from last fall? They winter in Minnesota and live in Canada far north. This is what our bird friend said.”
One unnamed person guessed, “I think the bird is a black headed grosbeak.” Richard guessed pine grosbeak and Royce King replied,
“Consulting my “Birds of Minnesota Field Guide” by Stan Tekiela, it appears Butch may have a photo of a male Pine Grosbeak.”
All of the guesses were better than the ones we came up with at the News-Herald. We knew it wasn’t a crow, not an eagle, seagull nor a robin, but after that our feathers were ruffled from thinking so hard so we tweeted out for answers. And, as it turned out, you, our readers, came through for us.
Here at the News-Herald we might have a “bird’s eye view” of the news, but when it comes to guessing the various varieties of birds, our attempts are rather “fowl”.
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