Subject: When is a grackle not a grackle?
Date: Oct 29 17:20:27 2002
From: Mike Patterson - celata at pacifier.com


When it's a starling....

Has anybody considered an escaped glossy-starling?
My first reaction was blue-eared starling, though the
posted photos do not show the head well, but I'm
thinking Ruppell's Long-tailed Starling comes pretty
close.

http://www.kenyabirds.org.uk/ruppeling.htm
http://www.softbills.com/images/photo_g/ruppells_starling.jpg

Dennis Paulson wrote:
>
> Hello tweets,
>
> Ruth Sullivan just showed me her excellent photos of the grackle at the
> Supermall. I didn't realize the "Great-tailed Grackle" that had been
> repeatedly reported by people there was the same bird that Joseph Higbee
> photographed! It is definitely not a Great-tailed Grackle (female
> Great-tails are brown, not mostly blackish like this bird - sorry for all
> who have already ticked that box on your list), nor is it a Brewer's
> Blackbird (based only on size - its coloration is much like that of a
> first-year male Brewer's at this time of year. Nor does it seem to be a
> Common Grackle. Although it seems to be about that size, I can find no
> plumages of Common Grackle that match this bird. The bird doesn't have a
> graduated tail, which should eliminate any kind of grackle, but it does
> seem to be molting at least one of its central rectrices. I am going to
> scan the photos and get them on the museum web site very soon, and
> hopefully other icterid aficionados can look at it.
>
> Dennis
>
> Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
> Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
> University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
> 1500 N. Warner, #1088
> Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
> http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

A child who becomes acquainted with the birds about him
hears every sound and puzzles out its meaning with a cleverness
that amazes those with ears who hear not.

-Neltje Blanchan

http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html