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Thread: Id Help Please

  1. #1
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    Default Id Help Please

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    I can't seem to find this bird in any of my field guides. It's almost completely featureless, and every candidate I find seems to have more in the way of markings. Observed at Palo Alto on Saturday.

    Thanks for any help,

    Bill

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    Hey Bill,

    Take a look at female Brown-headed Cowbird, I think you will find a match.

    Declan

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    That was my first thought too Declan. What put me off was the very thin bill. Cowbird's bills are more conical. Could it be a female Brewer's Blackbird?

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    Thanks to both John and Declan for useful pointers. If it helps any, there was a group of maybe half a dozen (so not a solitary bird) all eating whatever they were finding on the ground. The habitat was the dried grasses you see in the photo, in the middle of a wetland area on San Francisco Bay. I've just looked up both the Brown-headed cowbird an the Brewer's Blackbird in Wikipedia. They both look close. I have a few more photos that are not with me at the moment, but I'll try posting a different pose later in hopes that it may offer more identifying information.

    Bill

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    Female Brewer's Blackbird it is.

    Jim

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    Thanks for the help. I've now been back to the field guides, helped by all your expertise, and I do think Brewer's Blackbird is it. The Brown-headed Cowbird has a red iris, according to Sibley, and this bird does not. Here's another photo giving a more head-on view. Again, thanks very much for the help. I was going cross-eyed looking at all the pictures of other birds.

    Bill

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    I in the Brewer's camp too. In the original shot I thought it looked a bit stubbed tailed and billed for a Brewer's. I don't recall red iris for Borne-headed Cowbird, were you looking at Bronzed?

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    I must have been looking at Bronzed.

    Bill

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