Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 12:56:23 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Re: Bird ID? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi All, I guess telescopes in the Andes make good perches. At least it wasn't the lens he scratched. If you look at the feet in the photo (how can you not?) the bird can only be an owl with those feathered toes and opposable outer toe. The large size of the bird, barred tail, undertail coverts, flags (trousers if you will), and primaries and the temperate zone altitude (7,300 ft asl) of the facility all leave only one possible ID - Great Horned Owl. The GHOW is found almost throughout the Western Hemisphere and is the only large owl of the temperate zone in the mountains of southern South America. I had to check my old copy of De Schauensee's "Birds of South America" since I don't have any more recent guide to the region that includes owls. Interesting angle for making an ID, not the angle I'd want to have with a GHOW. Good Birding, Walter Ellison MD-DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS 23460 Clarissa Road Chestertown, MD 21620 phone: 410-778-9568 e-mail: rossgull@crosslink.net "A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little") ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shireen Gonzaga" To: Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 10:14 PM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Bird ID? > Can anyone identify this bird's butt, and let the astronomers > know who sat on their telescope? > > http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030401.html > > > > Shireen Gonzaga > Baltimore, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================