Subject: [Tweeters] Sialia currucoides Mea Culpa
Date: Apr 9 15:23:02 2008
From: Jim Flynn - merlinmania at comcast.net


Hi again Tweets,

I just received an e-mail from a friend who gave me the original link
to the Disco Park bluebird photo by Doug Parrot. It's at this site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdhouse_wa/

As my friend pointed out to me this prob. *is* a female Mt. Bluebird
and not a Western as I thought it might be. This is what my friend wrote:

"I'm pretty sure it's a female Mountain Bluebird, but have been wrong
before, of course.
P 400 of the big Sibley shows that Mountain should have a "pale line
across forehead" which Doug's bird has. The throat, upper breast, and
head seem to match Mountain in Sibley much better than Western."

I think I was fooled first of all because I'm a bit rusty on some things -
spending too much time in my garden and at the computer rather than
birding, but also because the only book I looked at before e-mailng
Tweeters was the National Audubon Master Guide to Birding (yeah,
I know, nobody actually uses that.) and the female in that book is like the
"gray adult female" shown in Sibley. The Master Guide does not even
mention the more rufous-toned females.

Now I've been re-educated. Hope I didn't send anyone scrambling
back out to the park...

--
Jim Flynn
merlinmania at comcast.net
Seattle, WA