Tweets -

On January 5 I wrote:

Twice today I saw a BLACK (coal/night/crow not grey!) finch or finchlike
bird at my feeder. Looked like a melanistic goldfinch....Any ideas on
making an ID would be appreciated.

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Michael Price replied:
Sounds like a melano. One possible ID technique is to ask yourself: 'if
this bird were *not* black, it would look like a _______.'

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Gene Hunn replied:
Could it be an escaped cage bird, like a variable seedeater (Sporophila
aurita) or thick-billed seed-finch (Oryzoborus funereus), etc.?

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Rob Saecker replied:
Any possibility of it being fox sparrow?

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Well, I had to wait until yesterday before this guy showed up again. I
eliminated Fox Sparrow right away - some of the physical elements
weren't right, and all of the jizz was wrong.

Though I had to borrow basic references for cage birds and Old World
finches I think I can say I have safely eliminated that possibility as
well. So I pondered Michael Price's suggestion - and told myself to
trust my first instincts - and looked at the bird as if it could be a
goldfinch.

Goldfinch? - The jizz was right, the size was right, the bill fits
inside the right parameters, it's just that BLACKNESS that doesn't fit
(and this guy is a loner, not goldfinchlike). So I've come to a
conclusion with about 80% certainty that what I have is a melano
goldfinch. Weird, but nothing super spectacular.

A hugely remote possibility remains that this bird is something like a
Grey Bunting (Asian) as it's a pretty good match for that bird as well -
just a lot less likely than a very common local bird with a physical
identity crisis. I'm going to try to get some photo's of this guy this
weekend (again, I'm *borrowing* a camera, I forgot how expensive being
completely "bird equipped" can be) and if I'm successful, I'll post
pictures on a web site and let y'all have a stab at it.

Rob Conway
Cougar Mtn, Bellevue, WA

robin_conway at hotmail.com






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