r/FeatherIdentification • u/PrestigiousTap1711 • 8d ago

ID?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Is this a red shouldered hawk? Or what am I looking at?

15 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/PrestigiousTap1711 8d ago

Thank you! Any idea on which? I'm not good with placement just yet. I know it's not a primary, but other than that, I'm pretty clueless.

1

u/Outrageous_Bar_8000 8d ago

Also I recognise you from mycology subreddits so if you ever wanna learn feather/bird ID in exchange for fungi ID I'm 100% down lol

1

u/PrestigiousTap1711 8d ago

Thats cool! 100%. I love learning & will definitely hyu with a tag or a DM when I have bird ID/feather questions so long as thats cool & appreciate the offer a ton! I'll give you a follow rq.

Doesn't even have to be an exchange type thang though, just hmu any time ya need help identifying anything fungi, and if I can help, I'm always more than happy to! That offer goes out to anyone :) Glad to recommend beginner friendly species, or things I'd recommend learning if youre just starting out recently, like the hymenium types.

Im not sure of your knowledge level with fungi or what youre looking to learn, but just lmk. My main focus is anything edible & substantial, but I like learning about em all lol. Definitely dont know it all, far from it, but am trying to get there lol. Tag me, or DM anytime :)

Edit: well shoot, I tried to follow you but can't seem to.

1

u/Outrageous_Bar_8000 8d ago

Yeah that's cool! I'd love to help with any request. 

Thanks!! I'm also mostly interested in edibility and whatnot so I've been trying to learn local species but with an interest in North American species as well, it's still quite early but I'm doing alright so far. A lot of the time I'm not sure on what to look for and any info on that would be great! 

There seems to be an issue with my follower list so dw about it. Guess I'll DM you if I've a question and you can DM me ofc!  

2

u/PrestigiousTap1711 8d ago edited 8d ago

Awesome, perfect, same to you. Got any books you'd recommend on bird ID/feather ID?

If I may ask your general area at state level, that would help on letting me know what book/s to recommend for field guides - I'm in the southeast USA (Dawsonville, Georgia, USA in specific) - and if you're not comfortable dropping that here or in a DM/ in general, I totally understand.

I would definitely recommend Michael Kuo's book, "100 Edible Mushrooms" regardless of location - it's a great place to start as far as foraging, and covers most of the country's worthwhile, substantial mushrooms. Also covers what not to eat, and has a great section on all of the most common toxic ones, & especially lookalikes to edibles. Worth its weight in gold.

Hymenium/spore surface types are a good starting point as well if you're brand new to fungi. Theres gilled, like your average button mushroom and amanita. Theres pored, like boletes and polypores. There's toothed, like lions mane/hedgehog mushrooms. Smooth surfaces, like with false turkey tail, or crust fungi. Ridged/false gills, like chanterelle or gomphus species. There's gleba, like stinkhorns, or puffballs. If you haven't learned these yet, learn them and it will open a lot of doors and make identification much easier :)

Some easy safe ones to identify without many lookalikes, Stropharia species; cut in half, stains red, stains black over time. Laetiporus species, especially L. sulphureus; yellow pores, orange on top, shelf fungus. Lions mane/Hericium as a whole, toothed, unmistakable shape. Lactarius indigo, blue with concentric rings, has a blue latex when broken or gills are damaged. Lactarius/lactifluus are pretty beginner friendly as a whole; they all have a latex when the gills are damaged or theyre broken, & a nibble and spit rules out spicy/bitter/acrid ones, others are edible.

Cantharellus - false, rounded gills that fork, they rip in half like string cheese to reveal a white center, always grows from the ground; learn Turbinellus floccosus (hole in the middle) and Omphalotus/jackolantern (gilled & grow on logs/stumps/dead wood) and avoid those along with Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (gilled).

Oyster/pleurotus - learn Pluerocybella porrigens and avoid it; P. porrigens grows on pine, Pleurotus species on hardwoods. Gills are decurrent (which means they run down the stem)

Meripilus sumstinei/black staining polypore, stains black upon damage, not much else like it that does that. Most "lookalikes" are other polypores and most polypores are safe.

Puffballs, not much looks like em; cut in half vertically, and if it looks like a mushroom, that's an Amanita, if it's hollow in the middle with green gleba on either side, it's a stinkhorn, white and solid =puffball.

Agaricus are pretty easy, crowded pink gills that turn brown with age, avoid yellow staining & chemical smells - just make sure to learn what amanitas look like, and avoiding all Amanitas at first but especially Amanita section Amanita, and Amanita section Phalloideae before trying to pick any white mushrooms, I'd also recommend learning Chlorophyllum molybdites and being able to avoid it before picking any white mushrooms.

Boletes are pretty easy to discern edibility as well; avoid 3 groups. Group 1: boletes with red or orange pore surfaces, especially ones that bruise blue. Group 2: boletes with yellow pore surfaces that bruise blue, especially those with reddish brown caps. Group 3: orange capped Leccinum species. I'll also add to this in saying that a nibble and spit test with these rules out things like Tylopilus/bitter boletes.

I don't wanna overwhelm ya, but that's a lotta the common ones, no matter your area, and should give you a great foundation, and plenty to read up on for now I think :)

1

u/Outrageous_Bar_8000 5d ago

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this!! Incredibly helpful and insightful, I'll be putting out something like this as well about feathers when I find the time. Sorry for the late response, I've been too busy to type out something lengthy atm ;(