Tweeters,
I wanted to follow up my post re: the Rusty Blackbird near Nisqually
yesterday. In that post I expressed confusion over the sex of that
individual, so I am including a brief description. I'd be interested in
hearing what others think. Most striking was the face pattern, which from
what I can tell resembles a female; ink black mask with a bright yellow eye,
bold buffy supercillium and buffy malar. I did not capture the the color/
pattern of the ear patch in my notes. The crown was unmarked rust color.
In the head region it seems to me the bird resembeled a female. The back
was rust colored, wings and tail black. The wings showed very thin rust
feather edges on the tertials and coverts, but this was not extensive at
all. The rump/ upper tail coverts did not strike me as being the
contrasting pale gray I would associate with females. The breast had rusty
feather edges giving a scalloped appearence, the throat was lighter. Flanks
were black with gray feather edged in a scalloped pattern. Bill was long
and thin as compaired to nearby Brewers. Except for the face pattern, the
bird showed characteristics I would expect from a male. A female I would
expect to see a contrasting gray rump and more extensive rusty to buffy
coloration of the underparts, but I'm not all that familiar with this
species. Any comments? The bird was seen well for about 15 minutes in good
light and within 100 feet with a good scope.
Cheers
Bill Shelmerdine, Olympia WA
georn1 at msn.com