I could not agree more with what Michael said in his recent Tweeters message. The head, neck and breast of this bird are indeed brown.

The central tail feather is much shorter than the other retrices. This is obvious in one of the photos I have seen of this bird.

This bird looks very different in different light. I viewed the bird on a cloudy and also on a sunny day; both times at very close range. The light plays a role. (This shouldn't come as a surprise.)

I urge anyone attempting to identify this bird to go see it, if at all possible.

Marv Breece
Seattle, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Willison
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: October 31, 2002 12:48 AM
Subject: Grackle Mystery


Tweeters,

I am seeing a lot of talk about the concern of how black or dark this bird is for it to be a G. T. Grackle. Of all the pictures I have seen of this bird on the internet I haven't seen one yet that does this bird justice as to the color I believe it more closely has. Maybe I just haven't seen all the pics yet that are out there on the web, but I observed this bird for a half hour at as near as 5 feet from me on the ground in the parking lot. It is not black at all in the head, neck, or breast. It is brown. Much contrasting to the darker blackish back and rest of body including the tail. I also believed this bird to have a much larger/longer tail than the Brewer's in the area and although I will agree to some arguments that it is not as keel shaped as we might expect, it does give the jizz of a molting grackle tail especially in flight. I'd be interesting in seeing what others who have seen this bird think about color! ations as well.

Michael Willison

sendtomichael at hotmail.com




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