Alvaro Jaramillo Counting Snipe Retrices

guess the tail 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:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z8m4VpvRTs[/youtube]

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.