[SBB] Unusual Lesser goldfinch at Stanford

[Richard Stovel <[[email protected]]>]

All:

During the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society field trip to the Stanford
Campus on Sunday, March 6, 2005, led by me, we (about 25 of us) encountered
an ususual goldfinch, photos of which may be seen at

http://www.stanford.edu/~stovel/birds/Unusualgoldfinch.htm

Photos are courtesy of Dorothy and Will Signal, who were on the field trip.

It was seen with a small group of Lesser goldfinches feeding in a small pine
next to Campus Drive West.  We viewed it from a parking lot behind the Old
Anatomy Building, about 100 yards west of Lomita Drive, which is the street
that the Cantor Art Center is on.

The bird was in many respects a typical adult male Lesser goldfinch.  The
pattern of white in the wings above (see photos) and in flight from below
(prominent white patch), the black cap, and the conical bill were good for
Lesser goldfinch.  Its size, behavior, flight, etc., were all normal in
comparison with the other Lesser goldfinches with which it associated.

The back, however, was a fairly light gray, not greenish, and the undersides
were mostly pale whitish, with pale yellow in the throat and upper breast.

It didn't strike me as a hybrid intergrade, but rather an unusual color
form of Lesser goldfinch, but we would like to hear opinions from the
experts.


Other highlights of the field trip included WHITE-THROATED SWIFTs, overhead
much of the morning, COMMON RAVEN on a nest at Green Library, and some of
the usual spring activity of the resident RED-TAILED and RED-SHOULDERED
HAWKs.

A few of us got distance glimpses of a pair of birds which, when we pooled
our impressions, we decided were likely WESTERN TANAGERs.


    -  Dick

--
Richard Stovel  [[email protected]]
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