From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun May 18 22:03:32 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h4J51ia1015605 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 18 May 2003 22:01:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sccrmhc02.attbi.com (sccrmhc02.attbi.com [204.127.202.62]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h4J50hfF015564 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 18 May 2003 22:00:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from computer.attbi.com (12-234-255-153.client.attbi.com[12.234.255.153]) by attbi.com (sccrmhc02) with SMTP id <2003051905004100200hd46ge>; Mon, 19 May 2003 05:00:41 +0000 Message-Id: <[[email protected]].> X-Sender: [[email protected]]. X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 22:01:45 -0700 To: "Tom Grey" <[[email protected]]>, [[email protected]] From: Alvaro Jaramillo <[[email protected]]> Subject: Re: [SBB] Yellow-headed Blackbirds In-Reply-To: <[[email protected]]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Cc: X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+ 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]] At 07:21 PM 5/18/2003 -0700, Tom Grey wrote: >I checked out the YHBL flock near the Jubilee Christian Center in Alviso. >Matthew Dodder asks whether the brightest of these birds are exceptionally >vivid females. They don't seem to be males as they don't show any white >wing patches, but they show much more yellow in the head than is shown in >either Sibley or National Geographic for adult females. I don't have enough >experience with the species to add to any discussion, but here is a >digiscoped picture, a little blurry but it gives the idea: >http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/yellowheadedblackbirds.jpg > >Tom Grey Tom et al. This is definitely a young male YH Blackbird. The larger size and more thickset structure (thick bill, bull-neck etc.) is apparent from the photo. Also females of this species never become so yellow on the head, with the blackish mask. Females always have a brownish nape and crown, with a yellowish supercilium and throat. Furthermore females are always brownish, never blackish like this young male. In fact this is among the bright extreme for young males, some are much more female like. We go into much more detail in our book on blackbirds on the plumages if interested, I think its at the Falconer library in Stanford but not sure. regards Al Alvaro Jaramillo Biologist San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory P.O. Box 247 Alviso, CA 95002 (408)-946-6548 http://www.sfbbo.org/ [[email protected]] _______________________________________________ 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]]