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Re: Need help with a bird id



BOB . . .

Could the bird have been a second-year male Indigo Bunting? Males are 
not fully blue until after their second year, so they often have a 
"calico" appearance, with a mix of blue and brown (tan) feathers.

Cheers,

BILL

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>      This morning as I was walking the RR track behind the Methodist
>College golf course, I spotted a bird in the weeds and brush that seemed
>odd to me.  A few minutes earlier I had seen a blue grosbeak sitting on the
>telephone wires by the track.  This bird was blue with blackish wings and
>tail.  It lacked the chestnut wingbars of the blue grosbeak but it showed a
>narrow strip of tan (buff)  on its flanks just below the wings.  I suspect
>that if I had seen it with its wings raised, the tan would have extended
>upward under the wings.  The bird also had a very dark cap on the top of
>its head, dark blue or nearly black.  The dark crest reminded me of the
>dark cap on a gray catbird.  Overall I thought the bird looked a little
>large for an indigo bunting, but no other bird was available for making a
>direct comparison and viewing a bird through binoculars tends to skew my
>size impressions anyway.
>      When I first spotted this bird, I thought it was an indigo bunting,
>but after taking two very good looks at it, I wasn't certain, especially
>because of the tan/buff along the flanks.  I need some help from folks with
>more experience with grosbeaks and buntings.  What was it?
>
>Bob
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>Robert C. Perkins, Ph.D.
>Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
>Methodist College, Fayetteville, NC 28311
>910-630-7037     rperkins@methodist.edu

-- 
**********

BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road
York, South Carolina 29745
USA

e-mail: <hilton@hiltonpond.org>

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"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to 
watch the sunset."

						BHjr.

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