Perhaps someone on Tweeters can answer this question about
Red-winged Blackbirds. The Location is Eloika Lake near Spokane,
Washington. Please reply to Don Boucher directly; he is on Oregon Birders
OnLine (OBOL) but not Tweeters (Imagine!)

Good Birding
Deb Beutler

>>QUESTION:
>>I was visiting my Dad near Eloika Lake and he insisted he saw
>>"Yellow-winged Blackbirds". So I had him take me to the site (a marsh
>>along HWY 2 in a valley south of Riverside H. School). I saw many
>>Red-winged Blackbirds but noticed that when the wings were folded often
>>only the yellow strip showed. I did catch a short glimpse of a bird that
>>had a lot of yellow even when it was showing off its shoulders. I
>>concluded that what my Dad observed was Red-winged Blackbirds with more
>>yellow in the wing bar that what is commonly seen.
>>Are there variations in some Red-winged Blackbirds that cause them to
>>have more, perhaps even dominantly more, yellow in their wing bar?
>>
>>Please feel free to forward this question to any Washington Birders, I
>>don't know any.
>>
>>Happy Birding,
>>Don Boucher
>>bouchdon at juno.com

Deb Beutler
Department of Zoology
P.O. Box 644236
Washington State University
Pullman (Whitman Co.), WA 99164-4236
dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu