I wish I had a dollar for every time I looked and a flock of Sandhills and
tried to turn one into a Whooping Crane. The key is prolonged observation,
which overcomes the short-term artifacts that give that impression. It sounds
like you didn’t really notice the bird in the field, but looked at the photo
later and one bird appeared lighter and larger. It’s probable that a Whooping
Crane migrating with Sandhills would stand out in all views, while a prolonged
observation of this bird would have given an alternating impression of the two
species. Clearly the bird isn’t an adult Whooping Crane, which would be a
clean white with the dark feathering extending into the secondaries. I’m
unable to tell whether the juvenile Whooping Crane have the same wing pattern,
but the text in my National Geographic implies that they do. The NG clearly
indicates that Whooping Cranes (and Commons, not that that’s really a
consideration) have dark chins. It’s my opinion that this bird looks big
because the wings are fully extended, while the other birds all have wings with
some degree of flex. With the wings extended, the bird catches the light
differently, giving it a lighter appearance than its peers. Perspective and
distance make size a difficult and somewhat limited field mark, but try
comparing the length of the neck to that of the second bird behind it. They
appear roughly the same length to me. With the exception of birds fostered by
Sandhills, I don’t think that Whooping Cranes typically migrate in mixed
flocks. Certainly wouldn’t rule that an impossibility, but it adds weight to
the overall impression that this bird is a Sandhill. Similarly, I wouldn’t
rule out a dilute plumage, i.e., a Sandhill with less pigmentation in the
plumage, but I’ve seen too many flocks with birds taking turns looking lighter
as their posture and lighting changed.
By the way, if anyone wants to send me a dollar for each of the times I’ve
morphed (temporarily) Sandhills into Whooping Cranes, I’ll be glad to come up
with a conservative estimate.
Phillip Kite
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: whisp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2018 6:26 PM
To: leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [leasbirds] whooper maybe
Importance: High
looked around ransom today and heard a large flock of sandhills flying
overhead. clicked a few images and during post noticed that one may be a
whooper. correct me if i'm wrong. also 1 rc kinglet, 2 flickers, 2 gf
woodpeckers and several pb grebes along with other usual suspects.
danny
www.500px.com/whisp
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