Subject: Re: King's English, & eye color
Date: Oct 13 15:10:53 1994
From: Eugene Hunn - hunn at u.washington.edu


On Thu, 13 Oct 1994, Eugene Hunn wrote:

Larry,

How would one tell a dark-eyed female Rusty from a female Brewer's?
There was a dark eyed Rusty reported for the Montlake Fill a few weeks
back but it was clearly a male, showing the distinctive rusty barring on
breast & back & bright facial pattern. Perhaps females differ very
subtly in bill shape?

Gene Hunn.

On Thu, 13 Oct 1994, McCloskey, Lawrence R wrote:

> Yes, agreed, the word "specie" is particularly vexatious to me when
> it appears in the writing of my students...bothers me almost as much as
> "it's" for the possessive. But, isn't this thread departing some from
> birding? (Just a gentle question...not to be interpreted as a flame!).
> Does anyone out there know of any reference or study dealing with
> eye color of Rusty Blackbirds? I ask because here in SE Washington,
> where we occasionally (maybe I should say "rarely") see them in the
> winter and spring, a couple of these have been strange (to me)--apparent
> Rustys with dark instead of yellow eyes. My reaction is to immediately
> call any dark-eyed bird like this a female Brewer's, but have been
> surprised and perplexed to see, upon examination (through a spotting
> scope at close range) what otherwise clearly appears to be a good Rusty
> Blackbird. The NGS guide says of Rusty Blackbirds: "ALL adults and fall
> immatures have yellow eyes". To sharpen my question: is it possible
> that some immature Rustys may be slow to develop the yellow eye color,
> possibly retaining the dark eye until maybe late winter or spring? Is it
> also possible that this species exhibits a clinal gradient of eye color,
> such as has often confused me in Boat-tailed Grackles on the Eastern
> seaboard?
> I'd guess that it would not be possible to examine the question of
> eye color from museum skins... And I once heard one world-class birder
> say to a group of us: "eye color is NEVER a reliable ID feature in any
> species." Surely that's too Draconian, right?
>
> Larry McCloskey
> Biology--Walla Walla College
> College Place, WA 99324
> mcclla at wwc.edu
>
>