Black-Chinned Hummingbird

The male black-chinned is metallic green above and white below, with green flanks. The bill is long, straight and slender. The male has a black face and chin, a glossy purple gorget and a dark forked tail. The female has a dark rounded tail with white tips and no throat patch. I've seen lots of what I thought were black-chinned hummingbirds and ultimately most turn out to be something else. They can look a lot like broad-tailed, rufous, calliope, Allen's, lucifer, Anna's and Costa's hummingbirds. The male, with a black throat, can be confused with the other hummingbirds, such as the Anna's, with a red throat, in poor light. I'm often seeing them in early or evening light and it is difficult to distinguish, particularly because we have lots of Anna's and much fewer black-chinneds. It is even more difficult to distinguish a female black-chinned from a female Anna's or Costa's hummingbird (I've had my own black-chinned identifications on iNaturalist negated by both). The female Anna's is larger, often with red feathers in the center of the throat and gray underparts. Almost half of Costa's have small throat patch of violet feathers, but others have entirely white throats. Female black-chinneds have club-shaped outer primaries while ruby-throated have knife-shaped outer primaries. Apparently you need to look at the shape and width of inner primary flight feathers (good luck with that). 

This is my only verified black-chinned male on iNaturalist, seen at Big Morongo on May 11, 2022. 

This is my only female black-chinned verified on iNaturalist, also at Big Morongo, on October 3, 2022. 

Illustration of female from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of male from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

White-Tailed Kite

The white-tailed kite is a very cool bird that I would love to see more of. Like Lord Voldemort, it has wonderfully sinister reddish eyes and pale whitish feathers (like Voldemort's skin) and can hover in the air like a helicopter. I saw my first one at San Elijo Lagoon in Encinitis, San Diego County, California on September 10, 2021 while we were staying in San Diego for a firm meeting. It was in poor evening light so in an attempt to lighten up the photo it is getting a purplish haze. 

The next sighting was on September 10, 2021 at a cacao farm near Churute Mangroves Ecological Reserve southeast of Guayaquil, Ecuador, shortly after we'd returned from the Galapagos Islands. 

Illustration from Birds of the World.

Illustration from Birds of the World.

Range from Birds of the World. I was surprised by the limited presence in the U.S. 

African Marsh Harrier

On July 18, 2025 Judy and I, and our granddaughter Ella, were on a wooden boat with an outboard motor, a navigator and a  guide in the Mabamba Swamp on Lake Victoria in Uganda. We saw lots of birds and I was able to get photos of most of them. One that eluded me was an African marsh harrier which glided by us in front of the boat. A combination of not having my camera ready and the guide and Ella in front of me made it so that I was not able to get a photo. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

I'm currently trying to document on my blog the different species of birds I've seen. I've blogged on most of them and have a goal to get it completed by the end of the year. Most of the birds I include on my list are ones that I have photographs of. However, this is one of about 22 I currently count that I don't have photos of. I've decided to do a short post on each one of those and include an illustration and a range map. 

Western Marsh Harrier

On October 17, 2017 Judy and I were with our friends, John and Susan, in Azerbaijan, toward the end of a "Silk Road" trip through the Stans, which started in China, then continued on through Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. We visited Shirvan NP to see goitered gazelles and while we were there, near a marsh, we saw a western marsh harrier. The identification was confirmed by two other identifiers on iNaturalist.

Eight years later, on November 26, 2025, we were in Keoladeo NP in Rajasthan, India and saw our second western marsh harrier, a much better view. This second sighting has had one other identifier on iNaturalist. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

In both cases we had guides who identified the birds while we were with them. 

Martial Eagle

In May 2014 Judy and I visited Kenya and Tanzania with my partners and their spouses as part of a larger overall group. We visited Buffalo Spring NR where we were in two different vehicles (3 couples in each vehicle) as part of a larger overall group of about 36 people. My partners and their wives in the other vehicle saw and got photos of a martial eagle which I provide below. We saw a martial eagle on our drive leaving Buffalo Springs. It was standing on a roadside post and flew when we got near it. We did not get photos of it, so I use the photos taken by other members of our group. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Yellow-Legged Gull

On July 2, 2022 we took a birding tour of the Sado Estuary near Lisbon, Portugal with Bernardo Barreto of Birds & Nature Tours in Portugal. We met him in Setubal and then did a clockwise drive around the estuary, eventually driving out the 13 mile long, and less than one mile wide, Troia Peninsula, which separates the Sado River from the Atlantic Ocean, and took a ferry across the 1.5 mile wide estuary, at that point, to Setubal where we'd begun. From the boat I got a photo of a yellow-legged gull. 

There are two subspecies and I saw ssp. atlantis, sometimes known as the Atlantic gull, which could possibly be a species on its own. Additionally, birds breeding on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, Portugal and Galicia, like this one, are usually included among ssp. atlantis, but are sometimes considered a third ssp., lusitanius. These birds have darker wings and back in comparison with the Mediterranean birds. My photo appears to be of a second year bird with a black bill tip and dark eyes (instead of the red bill tip and yellow eyes). I only have one identifier on iNaturalist that confirms it. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Greater White-Fronted Goose

I visited the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale, California on February 5, 2022 to find a greater white-fronted goose which I'd seen had been identified there recently, on eBird, a bird I'd not seen before. It was not a particular scenic setting, but I found that goose, and several others, including a snow goose and a Ross's goose, hanging out together, which game me an opportunity to see them in comparison to each other in an up-close setting.  

The tule goose, aka tule white-fronted goose, ssp. elgasi, is a very small population and winters in the Sacramento Valley, Suisun Marsh and Napa Marshes in California. The more common Pacific white-fronted goose, ssp. sponsa, or formerly frontalis/gambelli, also winters along the Pacific coast from California to western Mexico. It is distinguished from the other ssp. by its smaller size and range. This is likely the ssp. I saw. I'll save a larger discussion for later if I get a better sighting in a more natural setting with a larger population. 

Illustration of ssp. albifrons, not the one I saw, from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World.