User talk:Ursus sapien

Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, Ursus sapien!

First steps tutorial Our first steps tour and our frequently asked questions will help you a lot after registration. They explain how to customize the interface (for example the language), how to upload files and our basic licensing policy (Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content). You don't need technical skills in order to contribute here. Be bold when contributing and assume good faith when interacting with others. This is a wiki. Getting help More information is available at the community portal. You may ask questions at the help desk, village pump or on IRC channel #wikimedia-commons (webchat). You can also contact an administrator on their talk page. If you have a specific copyright question, ask at the copyright village pump.

Goodies, tips, and tricks Put Babel boxes on your user page so others know what languages you can speak and indicate your graphic abilities. You can find the files you have uploaded in your Uploads. Please sign your name on Talk pages by typing ~~~~. To link to an image page without embedding the image, type: [[:File:Foo.jpg]], which produces: File:Foo.jpg. You may enable gadgets (custom features) for your account. There are several tools to upload files. Have you edited Wikipedia before? This guide might be useful. Made a mistake? Do you want to have a file renamed or moved? Use the move link and wait for an authorized user to rename it. Do you want to have your recently uploaded picture removed? Tag it as {{speedy|reason here}}. For more information read the deletion guidelines.

-- Wikimedia Commons Welcome (talk) 22:05, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Northwestern Crows

Hi Ursus sapien - thanks for uploading these pics! What is the current species status of crows in the Vancouver area, please? I've read conflicting info as to whether they are American Corvus brachyrhynchos, Northwestern C. caurinus, or a hybrid mix between the two. As a result, several crow photos from this area have been placed in Category:Unidentified Corvus, including File:Corvus brachyrhynchos pulling Haliaeetus leucocephalus.jpg, File:Crows Mobbing Bald Eagle 01.jpg, 02.jpg, 03.jpg, 04.jpg, and File:Vancouver-Birds-Crow1.jpg & 2.jpg. Your input with identifying these would be greatly valued. Thanks! - MPF (talk) 13:19, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

[by email from Ursus sapien] I hope this is an okay way to reply to your question about my Northwestern Crow (Corvus caurinus) photos. Feel free to use or post this reply however you wish. Let me stress that I am just an amateur birder and my identification is open to correction!

My understanding is that C. caurinus is a more slender/smaller bird than C. brachyrhynchos, has a coarser call and also shows a blue sheen on the feathers. I identified this group of birds based largely on the blue sheen and their vocalisations. Also, the proximity of prefered habitat for C. caurinus around my neighbourhood (Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the Pitt River and the Coquitlam River are all within easy reach).

I've been interacting with the crows in my neighbourhood for about five years and have been able to track individuals and family groups based on distintive markings. Because of their familiarity with me, I get to see them close up in a variety of lighting situations and they all show a pronounced blue sheen.

That said, the crows here also show a range of sizes so it is possible or even likely that some hybridisation has occured.

Thanks! I'll check with others on BirdForum, there'll be some experts there who (I hope!) will know about current research in the area. Unless they say otherwise, I'll work on the assumption you're correct with labelling them C. caurinus. But even then, it's always worth remembering that an expert is just someone who used to be a pert ;-) they can be wrong too . . . MPF (talk) 23:20, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

ID of File:Plantaginaceae (veronica).jpg

• 

Hi Ursus sapien, Assuming that the above photograph is from British Columbia I tentatively assigned it to Category:Veronica filiformis, and because of the accompanying chickweed, also to Category:Stellaria media. --Robert Flogaus-Faust (talk) 10:34, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

File:Back-yard summer tilapia pond, long shot.JPG

File:Back-yard summer tilapia pond, long shot.JPG has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you!

Castillo blanco (talk) 13:10, 20 December 2018 (UTC)