Birding Bloopers #9

Here is another case of mistaken identity. This happens far too often with birders, it seems. When I put out a post to the Birding-Aus forum I didn’t quite expect to be swamped with people admitting to their mistakes.

My own embarrassing moment was spotlighting with a group from Canberra at Kingfisher Park, Far North Queensland a few years ago. We were asked to sing out if we see any eyeshine, which I dutifully did – it was a cow.

Mind you, the mistake is easily made. A cow does look vaguely similar to an owl or frogmouth. Or even a possum.

My thanks to another “Anonymous” contributor who gave me permission to publish this.

Question for readers:

When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).