Dear Tweeters,

Today (August 31 2002) at the Fir Island there were relatively few birds, but I did see a juvenile Green Heron, a Western Tanager, and several Orange-crowned Warblers, one of which chased the tanager.

At the Jensen Access I saw a peculiar incident of bird behaviour. I heard a deep-sounding chirp coming from a blackbird flying over. When I got a look at it, I realized it was a Yellow-headed Blackbird. Another bird was flying with it. They landed together on a distant snag jutting from the marsh. The YHBB called again, and the other, smaller bird gave a familiar call. Then they flew up to another perch closer to me, and I could see that the smaller bird was a Brown-headed, young of the year. Soon they flew to a log even closer to me. I could not tell who was following whom; they just flew together each time. At this closest view, I still could not be 100% sure of the sex of the YHBB. It looked like there was a bit of white at the wing-bend, but curiously this seemed to show up only on the right wing! I saw no yellow leg-mark. The nape was concolorous w/ head (dark brown). The lores were dark. The breast was bright yellow, but supercilium and face were a duller yellow-straw color. There was a smudge of dingey brownish back of the eye and curling back and down toward the nape, and a smudge going up and back from the yellow breast toward the eye.

Anyway, the two of them stayed on the log for ten mintues. The YHBB kept darting down the log and into the marsh vegetation below, apparently chasing insects. The cowbird stayed up on top and caught insects there. There wasn't a Starling or blackbird anywhere nearby--the closest ones were about 20 Brewer's, way back by the bend in the Fir Island Road.

I wonder whether the cowbird was following its surrogate parent around?

Oh, one question--is there a general term to include Starlings and various new-world blackbirds?





Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

garybletsch at yahoo.com



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