From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun Jan 12 18:33:27 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.6/8.12.2) with ESMTP id h0D2V44p015299 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 12 Jan 2003 18:31:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from pimout2-ext.prodigy.net (pimout2-ext.prodigy.net [207.115.63.101]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.6/8.12.2) with ESMTP id h0D2UZSE015261 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 12 Jan 2003 18:30:36 -0800 (PST) Received: from [192.168.1.105] (adsl-67-112-121-143.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net [67.112.121.143])id h0D2UY9F192368 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 12 Jan 2003 21:30:34 -0500 User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/10.1.1.2418 Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 18:30:32 -0800 From: Chris <[[email protected]]> To: <[[email protected]]> Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <[[email protected]]> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Subject: [SBB] What could we have seen? X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1 Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Today (Sunday) in the parking lot of Big Lots at Lawrence & El Camino in Sunnyvale we saw a bird that I've never seen before and it doesn't look like anything from around these parts. Here is my best shot at a description. We got several minutes to look at it from about 10' away (cursing for not having my digital camera with me the entire time). I did have time to get a book out of the car before it flew off with the flock of blackbirds. It was overcast but lighting was decent (it was about 4:00 or so when we saw it). It was standing on top a car amongst a flock of Brewers blackbirds (may have been some red wings mixed in). We got good looks at front, back and sides. It was the size and shape of a blackbird. Legs were black and looked a bit longer than a blackbirds perhaps, reminding me of the length of a Hermit Thrush. We didn't pay enough attention to the tail other than it was black and looked like a blackbirds. The beak may have been a bit smaller and pointier. The back had a lot of rufous, especially in the "cape" area around the shoulders and all the way up the back of the head. The edges of the feathers all along the sides and back (wings?) were edged in rufous but otherwise black. There was a distinct cap on the head much like a chickadee in shape that was rufous. The face was mostly a buff color with perhaps a bit of yellowish tint to it. There was also a lighter buff throat patch (similar in size and shape to a White-Throated Sparrow). There was a very distinct black eye stripe through the entire eye area, perhaps 1/8" thick. The buff face with eye stripe gives the appearance of a buff supercillium (over the eye) as much as a buff face with a black eye stripe. I thought the eye was dark, like the stripe, my wife says no, paler than a brewers but light, not black. The chest had faint, vertical, black streaks in it, reminiscent of an accipiter. There was a long, black, vertical stripe running up the middle of the chest. This was very thin and could have been an illusion caused by the bunching of the feathers in the chest area. I thought I heard it call something like a buzzier version of a Brewers Blackbird when it flew. We looked around and couldn't relocate it. Looking through all books the closest match is a female, non-breeding, adult Rusty Blackbird. But it was more rufous than the one in Sibley (pg. 514) and Sibley doesn't show the face/cap area at all. I'll check the other books asap. Could it have been this? Is this very rare in this area? -Chris & Cyndie Illes _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]