Subject: Rusty Blackbird eye color
Date: Oct 20 10:39:09 1994
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Re: Steve Hampton's postingabut this, although the Golden Guide does indeed
mention brown eyes in Rusty Blackbirds, I would have given that relatively
little weight, as that book has traditionally been considered the most
errorful of any of the bird field guides (Rich Stallcup wrote an entire
small book to rectify its errors). However, that doesn't mean that it is
wrong in this case! In the Audubon Master Guide, for which I have great
respect, Kenn Kaufman (for whom I have great respect) wrote "juveniles in
summer may have dark eyes."

My guess is that there is still a lot more to be learned about this. It's
amazing that there are still basic questions of appearance of a common
North American bird. Let's keep looking for more information.


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416