Hello tweets,

Wouldn't you know that the university server is down right now, so I can't
post Ruth Sullivan's blackbird photos on the web yet. I'm trying
regularly, and I'll let you know when it happens. But you can see them on
Mike Patterson's temporary site, as he wrote. For now, I'm sending the
written account I put with the photos:

MYSTERY BLACKBIRD

This bird has been present at the Supermall in Auburn, King Co.,
Washington, during October 2002. Originally called a Great-tailed Grackle,
it strikes me as too small and short-billed (the bill of females likely to
occur in WA averages just a millimeter short of one inch in length), too
short-tailed (the tail of same females averages about 5 inches, or the
length of a Black-capped Chickadee), and too glossy black to be a female of
that species. However, I have been reading about Great-tailed Grackle
plumages, and some descriptions indicate some females can be considerably
darker than others. I should add that I have never seen a female
Great-tailed this dark, nor can I find a photo of one this dark. Although
about the size of a Common Grackle, it seems not to be that species unless
an undescribed plumage of it. The central rectrices appear to be still
growing in, so it is possible the bird actually has a grackle-like
graduated tail a bit longer than it looks now. It is presumably an adult
bird because of the entirely pale iris. Its color matches to some degree
the color of a first-year male Brewer's Blackbird, but it is much too large
to be that species. The bill is larger than is typical of Brewer's but
seems not quite heavy and long enough for a grackle. Is it a hybrid?
Possibly Brewer's Blackbird x Common Grackle? Or even Brewer's Blackbird x
Great-tailed Grackle? Great-tails have hybridized with Red-wings, and the
Birds of North America account states that an apparent hybrid with Brewer's
was photographed in central coastal California (C. Marantz). [I couldn't
find anything about this on an internet search.] That seems more likely
than an unknown species, undescribed plumage, or gigantic Brewer's
Blackbird.

However, because of the lack of good descriptions of all plumage variation
in the Great-tailed Grackle (the BNA account merely repeats the literature
description of the Texas subspecies), I can't thoroughly rule out the
possibility of its being an exceptionally dark and exceptionally small
female of that species. But I don't think that's what it is!

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