I had a female type cowbird at my feeder yesterday that wasn't the typical
female brown-headed. I watched it for about 15 minutes at my window feeder and
just automatically said brown-headed female and didn't take a photo. Now I
wish
I had. It occurred to me last night while parusing my birds books that this
bird may not have been a female brown-headed. It had a a dull, dark chocolate
brown body, dark eye, medium length tail, and medium lengthed pointed bill.
The
overall look was of a very dark pudgy bird. I didn't notice an obvious ruff
but
that may have been from the age or posture of it. I've seen bronzed that
didn't
look like they have a ruff. After looking in my Sibley and other books it
looked like the eastern female Bronzed Cowbird. The photo in Jaramillo & Burke
of the juvenile looks almost identical to what I saw but the silouette looks
more like Sibley's adult eastern female. As far as I can tell there are no
plumages that look like the bird I saw in Brown-headed Cowbird. Has anyone
seen
a female brown-headed that looks like this?
Andrew
Andrew v. F. Block
Consulting Naturalist/Wildlife Biologist
37 Tanglewylde Avenue
Bronxville, Westchester Co., New York 10708-3131
Phone: 914-337-1229; Fax: 914-771-8036
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