[va-richmond-general] Mystery Bird

  • From: "Jim Blowers" <jimvb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:28:00 -0500

Today I found a mystery bird near our feeder. It looks superficially like a
robin. But it is smaller, and its top part is much blacker than that of a
robin. It has white on its breast as well as robin-red, which mainly occurs
on its flanks. It has some white tail feathers. Anne and I looked at
Peterson's and Sibley's bird books, but we could not find it. It looks like
an Eastern Towhee, with the white and orange breast. However, the Eastern
Towhee has red (or maybe white) eyes, and this bird we saw had black eyes.
It looks like a Rose-crested Grosbeak, which has black eyes, but it also has
a yellow beak, and the bird we saw has a black beak.

 

So what is it? A cross between an Eastern Towhee and a Rose-crested
Grosbeak? A Rosern Groshee?

 

Jim Blowers

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