White-crowned Sparrow

I spent the day yesterday helping my son and a team of dedicated and enthusiastic people donate 2 days of their time to make a movie for the 48 Hour Film Project. When I say spent the day, I mean the WHOLE day. I got up at 5:00 AM and didn't get home until after 1:00 AM Sunday morning. I provided the lighting for the shoot. It was a lot of fun, but between that and the lighting I did for Wilsonville High School's production of The Odd Couple, I haven't had a lot of time to bird.
I'm still working through all the pictures I took on my trip to Las Vegas. I didn't see a lot of Sparrows at the sites I visited and the one's I did see where mostly White-crowns like the one in the image above.

Cassin's Kingbird?

Here's another bird I saw on my Las Vegas trip that I am uncertain as to its identification. I can't decide if this is a Cassin's or a Western Kingbird. I tend to lean towards the Cassin's because of the defined white stripe on its throat and extending under its eye, even though there seemed to be a fairly large variation in this feature for both Cassin's and Westerns in pictures I found on the web. It's breast also seems to be a bit dark for a Western, but haven't seen a Western Kingbird since I was a kid.
Again, any feedback would be appreciated.

Crissal Thrasher?

Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of this bird as it was quite timid and quickly disappeared into some dense brush. It was positioned in a shadow when I took the picture so it was fairly underexposed. I was able to pull out a fair amount of detail with image editing, but with the angle being from the back, there is missing details that would help with its identification.
Based on what can be seen, I narrowed it down to three birds; a Crissal Thrasher, a California Thrasher or a Le Conte's Thrasher. These birds all have gray backs, rufous or buffy undertail coverts and a large, curved bill.
I eliminated the California Thrasher pretty quickly as Las Vegas is out of range and Sibley states that the two rarely overlap. That leaves the Crissal and Le Conte's Thrasher. Of the two, I have to give the nod to a Crissal Thrasher because of its apparent darker gray coloration and darker rufous undertail coverts.
Please feel free to comment one way or the other on my conclusion.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

I saw two black-crowned Night-Herons while in Las Vegas. The first was at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve seen in the top image. It was quite a ways from me, so I wasn't sure what it was as it looked like a big white blob. It didn't help that it initially had its head tucked away.
On my last day, before heading to the airport, I saw my first juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron seen in the bottom two images. It came flying towards me from a bend in the stream I was following. I was hoping it was something a little more exotic, but I finally concluded that it was a juvenile Night-Heron. Still a nice find!

Black Phoebe

One of the Black Phoebes I saw at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve this past Friday.

Verdin

The last time I birded in Las Vegas, I saw my first Verdin. I got some good looks, but the only way to get a look at the bird was with the sun at its back, so the images didn't turn out as well as I would have liked.
I saw this Verdin at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve on Friday and while I had trouble getting unobstructed views, the sun was at my back this time.
This was not the only Verdin I saw on that day and I also saw a nest that was very reminiscent of the Verdin nest I saw at Corn Creek. While I didn't see a Verdin actually go in the nest like I did at Corn Creek, there was one near by.

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Early on while walking the trails at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, I started seeing these small blue-gray birds. They hung out in the heavy brush, but came out in the open regularly and stayed reasonably still for small birds.
The preserve helped out with their identification, as many do, by providing a checklist of birds seen, both regularly and rarely. I had a hunch that they were Gnatcatchers, but I had never seen any and the preserve listed two varieties as resident; the Blue-gray and the Black-tailed. There is not a lot of difference between them, especially in the winter.
One field mark that appears to be a sure thing is the amount of white under its tail. It you look closely at the white spots under the tail of Gnatchatcher in the bottom image, you can see that this Gnatcatcher is a Black-tailed. The Blue-gray's are almost entirely white. While most of these were seen together in a limited area, I assume they were all Black-taileds.

Say's Phoebe

I've only seen a Say's Phoebe twice before and each time was a single sighting. Yesterday at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve I saw several. They were fly-catching throughout the Preserve.
At one point, the Phoebe above sat long enough on a post for me to inch my way in and get some pretty close pictures.

Gambel's Quail

I'm in Las Vegas on business and had the morning free today, so I decided to visit Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve as it has great reviews on the internet. It's similar to Fernhill Wetlands except it's in the desert.
The place was loaded with ducks and grebes, most of which I'm used to seeing in the Portland area. Especially this time of year.
The more interesting birds were the passeriformes I saw. They include Verdins, Say's and Black Phoebes, Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, a Crissal Thrasher and a possible Cassin's Kingbird. I'll be posting them as I work through the images, but I want to start with the Gambel's Quail I saw.
They were the first birds I saw. They greeted me on the road leading to the parking lot in front of the visitor's center. I only got mediocre pictures of them at that point, including some of them in a tree. It seemed odd to see Quail in a tree. I'm not sure if that is typical for other Quail.
I ran across more of the Quail as I walked the many trails around the ponds of water. They are hard to get good shots of as they run along the ground and hide in any brush they can find. I did manage to get a good shot of the one above as my day was coming to an end. It was perched in a tree, which seemed to be about the only thing that would keep them still.