Tweeters,

Thanks to Eric Kraig for ID-ing the Sage thrasher for me. I really
appreciate your expertise. Perhaps you wouldn't mind confirming
another ID: Just northwest of Kittitas (flat open farm land) on
Highway 10, opposite a giant pile of manure, a bird came out of
nowhere and hit the side of my car, while I was travelling about 40-50
mph. I didn't hear it hit, but I went back and it was there lying in
the road. I still have it, because I want to ID it. Since it's dead,
my descriptions might be off. It seems about the size of a sparrow.
It is nondescript mottled gray, tiny amounts of black, and overall
hint of brown. The destinguishing elements are:

1. A well-defined, pale yellow, or pale mustard, area on the
chin and throat.
2. A solid black bib at the top of the breast.
3. A whitish-gray eye stripe extending from the top of the bill
back through the eye to the back of the head. (the bird is
dead and has been wrapped in a paper towel for several days,
so take that into account.)
4. A whitish-gray stripe that extends down and back from the eye
a ways and then straight down towards the neck.
5. In between the yellow chin and throat, and the second stripe,
is a black area.
6. The bill is dark pearl-gray and thin, legs are black, no wing bars.
7. Below the black bib, the breast is mottled gray, with the belly
much more whitish.

>From the guides, it seems like this must be an immature horned lark.
I did see a horned lark (dark race) down in Schnebly Coulee up in the
sage brush, later. In fact the bird looks like about half way between
the immature and mature dark-race horned lark in the Peterson Guide.
No hint of horns. But I can't find anything that tells me when these
birds nest. Would there already have been a brood in Eastern
Washington? This happened on March 25. Sorry if this is a stupid
question, but I'm still new at this.

Thanks

Bob Mauritsen
rhm at ms.washington.edu