Subject: odd bird in Stanley Park
Date: Nov 11 21:47:11 2002
From: Daniel Bastaja - birdingfaqs at hotmail.com
Hi Netta. This is Daniel Bastaja posting for Mon. Nov. 11th, 2002. With the
gray colouration and olive green wings and tail it suggests a Green-tailed
Towhee which would be a very hot bird up here in B.C. but a few things of
the description don't match. I don't think Green-tailed Towhees have spots
at the corners of the tail or rufous sides. If it were a GTT it should have
showed some white at the throat and some rufous on the crown. Also it would
have been noticeably smaller than a Spotted Towhee. Did your friend mention
anything about these latter field marks? A Green-tailed Towhee is certainly
possible as there have been two sightings in B.C. this year. One at Lillooet
in the summer and one at the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary in the fall. I
am forwarding your message to our local birding e-mail group so that, if
someone has the time and inclination, they can head over to Stanley Park and
try and re-locate this "mystery" bird.
Regards,
Daniel Bastaja
e-mail: birdingfaqs at hotmail.com
>From: Netta Smith <nettasmith at attbi.com>
>Reply-To: nettasmith at attbi.com
>To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: odd bird in Stanley Park
>Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 20:40:23 -0800
>
>A friend of mine, Len Lewicki, was walking in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC,
>on Saturday, 9 November, and saw a bird he couldn't identify. He called me
>and asked me about it, and I have no idea what it was. He saw it right
>from
>the seawall just west of Second Beach. He heard a whistled sound that he
>didn't recognize and finally located the bird 10' up in a tree. As he was
>watching it, it flew down and landed on the ground 5' from him, and he got
>good close looks at it. He said he thought it was surprisingly tame
>(escaped captive?).
>
>He said the bird was about towhee size. Much of it was gray, a light to
>medium gray (female junco gray?), perhaps a little darker around the lores.
>The wings and tail were olive-green, and he said he thought if the sun had
>been shining they might have looked a bit iridescent. The sides were
>rusty,
>paler than the rufous on the side of a towhee but similarly arranged. The
>tail had white tips, at least the outer feathers. There were no other
>markings. Some of the features sound quite towhee-like, but he said the
>bill definitely was smaller, not a sparrow bill, and the bird lacked white
>spots on the wings and didn't have a white belly. The bill was dark, the
>legs and feet obviously pink.
>
>Although not a hotshot birder, he knows the common local birds, and this
>one
>stumped him, as it does me. I can't even figure out what kind of escaped
>captive it might be!
>
>If anyone knows about this bird, please let me know. If not, see if you
>can
>find it!
>
>Dennis Paulson
>--
>Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
>1724 NE 98 St.
>Seattle, WA 98115
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