[va-richmond-general] Goldfinch??

I have been recording birds for a number of days, and will submit some of
this to the Great Backyard Bird Count. One of these birds was a mild
chartreuse bird with black tail feathers and a noticeable eye. I figured it
was a non-breeding goldfinch. We kept getting this bird every day, always
one of it. Today I saw it; thought it was a yellow-rumped warbler at first.
I looked at it with the binoculars, and then it turned its head straight to
me. I saw a big bright patch of red on its head. Did it get hit by something
and was now bleeding? Instead, I looked at a picture of a goldfinch. I
decided the bird I was looking at had too much of a little plump-bird look
to it to be the goldfinch and the goldfinch's eye was not as noticeable as
on the bird I was looking at. Then the bird turned its head straight at me.
It had a big red area on it, as though it had gotten a gash on it. This
really made me doubt it was a goldfinch, so I looked all over the place in
finches, warblers, and sparrows and did not find it. So instead I looked for
a bird that had the same physique, namely the gray goatcatcher I saw last
year. I looked around the goatcatcher in the bird book and I found the bird.
It was a ruby-crowned kinglet. It was the first ruby-crowned kinglet I had
ever seen. I had to write it in to my data sheet. I have only seen one at a
time but there must be two, a male and a female, because sometimes the bird
had the red on its head and sometimes it didn't.

 

Jim Blowers

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