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Comment by sjf | Hacker News Reader

Offf, as some one coming from the UK, thrush vs redwing is not even in the difficult category... Try little brown birds of which there are many, they are basically indistinguishable, they love to hide, so notorious they even get their own wikipedia page[1]; or gulls, also many species, as well as several variations of adolescent plumage; or raptors which in the UK you pretty only see as a silhouette while they are hundreds of feet up in the air, and seen so rarely you never learn to distinguish them by their outline.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_brown_bird

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Raptors are really interesting from a recognition perspective. Since volunteering at the Hawk Conservation Trust in the UK I've learnt lots of useful tips that apply even when you can just see a little silhouette. For example:

- Falcons have relatively scythe-shaped wings while Hawks have more rounded wings relative to Falcons

- Hawks and Eagles have more pronounced 'fingers' at the ends of their wings relative to Falcons

- Buzzards and Kites: Buzzards are more stubby and have a diamond shaped tail; Kites have longer wings and a forked tail

- There are similar differences with respect to the length of the tail.

Some raptors have diagnostic flight patterns: Kestrels hover in place, Kites perform extremely dynamic acrobatics, especially in groups. Even when you can see the plumage, it doesn't always help - there can be significant differences between juveniles and adult males and females.

Up here in the North East near Sunderland we get a lot of Red Kites so I've learned to recognise them fairly well. Very hard to get a good picture though.

I spotted a Kestrel in a tree a couple of weekends back, that sat for a while and then dived to try to catch a small bird. It missed but it was great to watch. I managed to get a few decent photos - https://www.instagram.com/p/CHDt2HogIZj/?igshid=1n13m6e6a6e1...

This reminds me of a parallel expresssion in mycology:

> "Little brown mushrooms" (or LBMs) refers to a large number of small, dull-coloured agaric species, with few macromorphological uniquely distinguishing characteristics.

> As a result, LBMs typically range from difficult to impossible for mushroom hunters to identify.

> For mycologists, LBMs are the equivalent of LBJs ("little brown jobs") and DYCs ("damned yellow composites") that are the bane of ornithologists and botanists, respectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_hunting#Little_brown_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damned_yellow_composite

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