Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Update to my Luneau video analysis

I've just added this update to my Luneau video analysis:

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There's yet another potential problem with Cornell's wrist-to-tailtip measurement. I think the exact location of the tailtip is questionable.

In the first picture here, there is a black smudge on the left side of the tree, lower than the "wing"; Cornell interprets this smudge as the bird's tail. However, if you look at the third picture at the link above, you can also see a black smudge at that same position on the tree. This black smudge still shows up even AFTER the "Ivory-bill" is seen flying away from the tree! Of course, by that point, the black smudge can no longer be interpreted as the bird's tail.
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