Spent 3 months trying to ID one bird from a blurry photo

I snapped a pic of this brown streaky bird in my backyard last spring and it took me forever to figure out what it was. Kept going back to my Sibley guide thinking it was a female house finch but something was off about the tail feathers. Finally posted it on the Cornell bird ID page and someone said it was a juvenile brown-headed cowbird. Three months for a bird that was in my yard the whole time. Has anyone else wasted way too long on a single bad photo?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace891d ago

Ain't that just how it goes sometimes, you stare at something for months and miss the obvious right in front of you? It's like when you're trying to find your keys and they're right on the counter the whole time.

vera51411h ago

Right? @grace89, you hit the nail on the head. I once spent an hour looking for my phone while I was literally talking to someone on it, which is a special kind of dumb.