I realized I did this wrong, so now I'm replying all.

That bird doesn't look like a magpie to me, the body isn't stocky enough -- it's fluffed, but not stocky. I think it looks closer to a forked tailed flycatcher, possibly a color morph, or a cross between a fork tailed flycatcher and a scissor-tailed flycatcher. The tail length would fit with a juvenile. Bill proportion to head, everything just looks more like a flycatcher than a magpie.

Anita Jacobson
Seattle
amjacobson52 at msn.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Schwitters<mailto:lpatters at ix.netcom.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu<mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 5:37 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] strange bird


Tweeters,

Are we up for another "name that bird" game? This has been on the OBL
(Oregon Birders List) for a couple days. The picture was posted by Mike
Patterson of Astoria. It's a bird photographed in the Bitterroot
Valley, near Stevensville, Montana last fall.

No one else in Oregon seems to think it's what I think it is. What do
you tweeters want to call it? It is of course way to late in the month
for an April fool.

http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/temp/MT_mystery.JPG<http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/temp/MT_mystery.JPG>

Larry Schwitters
Issaquah




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