Hi folks,

I know this is going to be disappointing to a lot of you, but I'm
afraid we can confirm that the bird we thought to be a Phainopepla
was actually a young Stellar's Jay (and extremely dark, even for a
Stellar's). We went back this morning to the same spot and found the
same bird, behaving exactly the same way. This Jay was a lot smaller
than most and almost completely black, but we were able to watch him
for longer. Our first clue was the absence of the conspicuous red
eye, this bird's was definitely black. After about twenty minutes, he
finally came down out of the tree, and when I saw the tiny bit of
blue on his tail feathers, I knew what we were dealing with.

I want to apologize for getting everyone excited, but I'm pretty
certain you won't find a Phainopepla in the Arboretum this year.
Chalk it up to a couple of young birders who got a little over
excited when they couldn't figure out what they were looking at...

Dan Corcoran