Mystery Birds
Hi all,
Kathy (my sister-in-law) lives in Reno, NV, and has run across an unknown bird. (The creature has a blue body and brown wings.) Kathy is hoping that we can help her identify it. Let's see what we can do. Here are the facts that we have to go on...
See you by those UFB (Unidentified Flying Bird) feeders!
CapeCodAlan
My money is still on the grosbeak below...
Kathy (my sister-in-law) lives in Reno, NV, and has run across an unknown bird. (The creature has a blue body and brown wings.) Kathy is hoping that we can help her identify it. Let's see what we can do. Here are the facts that we have to go on...
- She sees the unknown birds in the morning.
- They seem to be fairly gregarious.
- They are "robin-sized".
- Kathy has looked at pictures of both the Western Bluebird and the Blue Grosbeak, and she doesn't think that either one of those are a match.
- Blue Grosbeak
- Indigo Bunting
- Western Bluebird
- Purple Martin
- Pinyon Jay
- Steller's Jay
- Black-chinned Sparrow
- Townsend's Solitaire
- Mountain Bluebird
- Maybe one of the readers of this blog can post a comment positively identifying the bird.
- Try to get some pictures of the birds, and then email those photos to me at: capecodalan@ebirdseed.com.
- Use the microphone built into an MP3 player or cell phone to capture the birds' songs and email that to me at the address above.
- Borrow/buy binoculars and a local bird book and see what you can find.
- Ask your neighbors... No doubt someone will nonchalantly say, "Oh, those are such and such."
See you by those UFB (Unidentified Flying Bird) feeders!
CapeCodAlan
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Wikipedia
- Audubon Society
- U.S. Geological Survey
- The National Audubon Society’s “The Sibley Guide to Birds”
- ”Birds Of North America” published by Golden
- ”Birds of New England” from Smithsonian Handbooks
My money is still on the grosbeak below...
Comments
Seems like it would make sense for Kathy to forward a picture of the bird.
kathryn
Posted by: kathryn | April 21, 2007 3:08 AM
Here from the newsletter...
put a link on my side bar
I've never seen a blue grosbeak - they are not in my area.
But I think you are correct.
It is the one most robin sized.
Posted by: Pamela | April 22, 2007 10:13 PM
I also had a 'strange bird' in my yard last week. We live in New Jersey and when my daughter described the bird she was seeing ~ I had NO IDEA what it was. She emailed me a picture and even though it was exactly as she had described it over the telephone...I still didn't know what it was. She said she looked in the NJ Field Guide and it wasn't in there. Turns out the 'stranger' to our yard is not native to this area. It was a chukar! I have a photo of this visitor to share ~ but I don't see how to forward it on this site. I am looking forward to seeing what 'strangers' might appear next! SBF
From CapeCodAlan: sounds very interesting! If you'd like, feel free to email the photo to me as an attachment! Thanks for your comment.
Posted by: Brenda | April 23, 2007 1:19 AM