Birding Bloopers #8

Here is another birding blooper - a misidentification of an object thought to be a bird. This one comes from ‘Anonymous’, an Australian birder on a visit to South Africa.

My worst moment came whilst on a twitchathon in South Africa, I called a White Stork soaring in the thermals above the car……turned out to be a hang-glider!

I would have though that the size and shape would have given it away, but then I’ve been fooled by thinking a banana skin was a Golden Whistler dead on the road (click here).

Thanks to the birder from the Birding-Aus forum who gave permission to use this blooper.

For 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).