I have suspected that the red pattern and the variation in black-to-brown coloration on the wings made many individual Rose-breasted Grosbeaks distinguishable. This year I decided to try to take digital images of every RBGR that I saw that perched on the feeder at a position so that I could photograph its front and, if possible, also its side. So far I've downloaded sets of images for 10 RBGR that perched appropriately. After examining/comparing the images of the first 10 birds, 9 of them were distinctly different individuals. We only saw two males at a time so without a photo album I would have only counted 2 males, plus two females also. I'm still making my photo album of them, and repeats are still uncommon. Who knows how many it will add up to.
Fun with birds. John -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
