ID Help: Female brown-headed cowbird?

[P-A. Fortin]

Sometimes, accidentally, I have time to check on my images. Sometimes, even more accidentally, I have time to check on images of birds on which I did not have a positive ID.

So here's one.

I would have put my money on female brown-headed cowbird, but the yellow on the lower mandible bugged (and still bugs) me.

Image was taken in mid-august, near Quebec City, just next to a small marsh.

[Dan Brown]

I think you have a Brown headed Cowbird here P-A. I'm thinking a hatch-year bird, which could explain the yellowish lower mandible, but I've never seen that much yellow on one.

[Paul Guris]

Looks like a recently fledged Brown-headed Cowbird to me. BirdFellow has a good description of the plumage, including the apropos warning "Freshly fledged juveniles are often reported as 'mystery birds.'"

http://www.birdfellow.com/birds/brow...molothrus-ater

I found a shot of a bird like yours with a yellow lower mandible at the link below. Scroll down to the second photo:

http://capecodbander.blogspot.com/20...-migrants.html

[P-A. Fortin]

Thanks for the info and confirmation. I'm glad my first guess was close enough :)