** Reply to message from Michael Willison <sendtomichael at hotmail.com> on Thu,
31 Oct 2002 00:48:01 -0800


> The following text was extracted from HTML: 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.


Here is my contribution to the discussion:

http://24.81.49.25

Follow the links to Birds->Grackles

I don't think the bird is a full blown grackle. Bill is too small. Hybrid
seems best bet to me.

Jack

Jack Bowling Prince George, BC mailto: jbinpg at shaw.ca