Since we've seen three unusual birds in our yard the past two months but have been unable to get photos for confirmation, we hesitate to name a bird we have seen twice this week. Let me describe it and ask your help. Wednesday morning we had several warblers, tanagers, and orchard orioles in the yard. One bird flew to the telephone line near our deck and we had good looks at it. It was the size, shape, and color of a female Scarlet Tanager but had several distinctive differences. The bill was orangish on the lower half, it had two wing bars, the stomach was white with the greenish-yellow Scarlet Tanager colors on the upper throat and under the tail, and the back above the wings was a medium gray. We saw the bird again on Thursday morning as it came to the same telephone line and stopped before going down the hillside to eat on what folks around here call Poke Berries. While it was feeding we had several quick looks at it but because of the angle of the hill could not digiscope and it was too far away for the zoom on our camera to focus. It was rainy here this morning and it did not appear even though we watched for over two hours. We're convinced Sibley has a picture of the bird we saw but wonder from the description what you would call it. Tommy & Virginia Curtis Smithville, TN DeKalb County =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________