Birding Bloopers #16

It is amazing the difficulties that birders get themselves into from time to time. Over recent weeks various birders have shared the errors of their ways while out birding. Some have made very strange identifications but today’s contribution is a beauty. The size, shape, colour and sound all indicates a non-bird ID, but no… well read for yourself.

I have too many to list but I’ll happily pass on someone else’s birding blooper.

We were at Phillip Island in Victoria, watching seabirds from the cliffs on the ocean side. I was looking out to sea, my friend was looking back at the muttonbird colony.

She nudged me and said, ‘What bird is that?’

I trained my binoculars on the object that was emerging from behind the bushes.

It was the rescue helicopter.

Thanks to Snail from A Snail’s Eye View for this contribution.

To read more in this series click here.

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).