Animal Identification

  We often have trouble figuring our exactly what we have seen.  Here are some things we have learned that helped us determine what animal we were seeing.  Even then we still make mistakes as there are always exceptions.  Animals can look different based on location, age, sex, breeding season, hybrids, lighting etc. etc.

Good Luck !

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ID TIP # 12  -- Not always a Monarch.

12-A   Monarch Butterfly	12-B   Viceroy Butterfly

• A Monarch Butterfly is bigger than a Viceroy and has no dark band on its hindwings.   (Exhibit 12-A) 
• A Viceroy Butterfly looks similar to a Monarch but has a black band across its hindwings. (Exhibit 12-B)

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ID TIP # 22  -- Which Widow Skimmer?

22-A   Male	22-B   Male [Immature]

• A male Widow Skimmer Dragonfly is blue. The wings start with black and then a brush of white before being clear to the ends.   (Exhibit 22-A) 
• An immature male Widow Skimmer Dragonfly has orange going across the back. The wings start with black and then a brush of white before being clear to the ends. The wings are the same as the mature male.  (Exhibit 22-B)
• A female Widow Skimmer Dragonfly has orange going across the back. The wings start with black and then become clear to the ends. There is no white on wings.  The body is the same as the immature male. (Exhibit n/a)

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ID TIP # 87  -- Great or Double-Crested Cormorant?

87-A   Double-Crested	87-B   Great

• A Double-Crested Cormorant has an orange throat pouch.   (Exhibit 87-A) 
• The throat pouch is right before the feathers start on its neck.  If it caught a fish this would be the part that hangs down while it swallows.
• A Great Cormorant has some orange going across the beak starting from its eye but has a white throat pouch. (Exhibit 87-B)
• Double-Crested Cormorants are found in North America, Great are found on the east coast of North America as well as in Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.

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ID TIP # 247  -- Frogs - Male or Female?

247-A   Female Bullfrog	247-B   Male Green Frog

• In Bullfrogs and Green Frogs the female eardrum is about the same size as the eye. (Exhibit 247-A) 
• The male eardrum is larger than the eye. (Exhibit 247-B)

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ID TIP # 435  -- Downy Woodpecker / Hairy Woodpecker

435-A   Downy Woodpecker	435-B   Hairy Woodpecker

• Downy Woodpecker has black dots on its outer white tail feathers. Hairy does not. (Exhibit 435-A)
• Hairy has a beak that is almost as long as its head.  Downy has a smaller beak. (Exhibit 435-B) 
• Hairy Woodpeckers are larger.

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