I too am surprised that the discussion about this bird stopped so
abruptly. I know that in the case of Natalie and I, we did take a series
of photos of the bird and spent about an hour watching it at close range
two weeks ago. I had hoped that our slides would be able to add to the
identification debate here, but when I look at the slides they really
offer nothing new for the debate.

Even as we watched the bird, we had a hard time convincing ourselves that
it was a Great Tailed Grackle, since it looked so different from the
illustrations and photos we had for comparison. Marv Breece was on the
scene and did have an illustration of a GT Grackle from the Stokes guide
that looked very similar to the Auburn bird, but that was the only
illustration of the bunch that was as dark as the bird we were seeing.
What we could tell was that this bird was definitely not a standard
Brewers' Blackbird. It was 1.5 times the size and had different coloring
than a Brewers, and the long tail made us think that it could have indeed
been a grackle of some sort. I also don't feel that any photos I have
seen of the Auburn bird does it full justice. The effects of lighting on
the bird was notable, and when I looked at it through binoculars I could
see some blue and green tones in the tail feathers, a slight supercilium,
and a breast that was slightly lighter than the rest of the bird's chest
and head. In fact, one of the slides I have shows some streaking in the
breast (the shot was taken from underneath the bird, looking up as it sat
in a maple tree).

It has been interesting to watch this discussion and to see how it has
reached an inconclusive resolution. It just goes to show that while we do
have a pretty good grasp of identifying nature around us, nature has a
way of pointing out our shortcomings in identifying exceptions to the
rules in what we are seeing in the real world.

Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.whiterabbits.com/MacNetJournal/
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html

>Hello Tweeters ,
>First i must thank Dennis Paulson who worked hard to help identify the
>Mystery Black Bird at the Auburn Supermall.I myself was not so covinced
>about the ID of this bird.But the Photos what Dennis as specimen put on the
>Web-site,convinced me cotmpletly that we did not dealing here with a
>Great-tailed Grackle.Alone this big long bill ,and it is twice the lenght of
>the bird i photographed.Also the female Grackle have a more slender
>appearance than the bird in Auburn ,what had a big short and heavy body.
>I wonder what would happen if i would not have taken my photos and show them
>to Dennis Paulson? I urge any birder out there who birds much alone to get a
>camera to confirm the birds they find on their own.This here is a good
>example how we all made the mistake,not seeing this species that often and
>than being a female made this twice as hard and reading about the "nelsoni"
>subspecies and also what Don Roberson's good write up posted by Dave
>Beaudette onto Tweeters and in "Western Birds" described with beeing so much
>smaler,still can not turn this bird in to a Grackle.The Bill covinced me of
>this.I also wonder that no birders made any comment's of the Great-tailed
>Grackle photos what Dennis Paulson put on to tweeters.
>
>
>Ruth Sullivan
>Tacoma
>