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Any guesses...

...as to what the bird I saw at Pueblo Reservoir might have been? I was fishing out in a boat and didn't get a good look at it because I was too far; but it appeard to be the size of a large thrush, singing it's heart out on the highest rock-tip in a pile at the edge of the water. It had a dark back and very light front, with some sort of sooty-looking coloration on it's breast. The bill seemed straight and somewhat longer than say...a robin? I can't even seriously guess at what the bird might have been...but the singing was quite sweet. Could it have a Water Thrush there...out in the open like that?

Earlier in the morning, as we arrived about 5:30 am, I was really supprised to hear a pair of birds calling back and forth in the parking lot and turn to see a Quail-type bird sitting on the hood of a car! I looked in the other direction, towards where he was calling, and saw another scurring around on the ground. Both seemed to have bits of tufted, light-colored feathers at the tops of their heads; Scaled Quail, maybe?

Tags: quail, thrush, unknown birds

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Permalink Reply by Gary Lefko on June 24, 2008 at 12:05pm: Probably robin or the "drunken robin" (Black-headed Grosbeak) ... :-) ... Northern Waterthrushes are much smaller (warbler) and hang out "normally" streamside. Other thrushes? Gary; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Beverly on June 24, 2008 at 2:59pm: Well, I thought it was about 8" or so...but my friend had thought more like 6” which would make it the size of a Northern Thrush. But looking at more pictures of the NOTH, I see it is too streaky to have been the bird I saw. I don’t think it was a Robin and I’m sure not a Grosbeak...the bill was proportionately longer on this bird too, than a Robin’s bill.

Yours are good guesses, I think; in that this was by a lake with Cormorants and Great Herons (Pueblo Res.)…does that change the guesses? Maybe I was thinking Thrasher, not Thrush. LOL I’m gonna suggest a Northern Mockingbird. There, I did it. Is it possible…or even likely? I notice young ones have some streaking high at the breast.

Perhaps this is impossible and I should just wait till I see the bird another time.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary Lefko on June 24, 2008 at 3:19pm: sage thrasher (seen in pueblo at times) or mockingbird (don't remember many reports of mockers in Pueblo Reservoir area) Gary; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary Lefko on June 24, 2008 at 12:06pm: The quails look "scaley"? Bobwhite, Chukar? Gary; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Beverly on June 24, 2008 at 3:04pm: Well, I sure do wish I'd had a camera handy; but no, definitely not a Chuker and I don't think a Bobwhite, either.

The birds were not strikingly colored... no stripes that stood out; more an all-over grey or gun-metal blue (the color of the gravel)...but with some non-contrasting marks. To tell the truth, especially with that cotton-top thing going on, they both looked exactly like Sibley's drawing of a Scaled Quail. Could they have been?

Obviously I do not know the birds of Pueblo Reservoir! Thanks Gary, I realize I'm asking you to shoot in the dark here! LOL; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary Lefko on June 24, 2008 at 3:20pm: Then Scaled Quail-they are seen there. Gary; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Beverly on June 24, 2008 at 7:25pm: AWESOME... Gary, I'm getting better at this!!!

[grinzzzzzzzzz happily]
Beverly; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Beverly on June 24, 2008 at 7:26pm: Dang, Gary...you make a person REACH! (a good thing) Yup, I'm pretty convinced, if these birds are in the area; that is what it was.

But on the hood of a vehicle? WOW

Thank you so much...

[does da happy dance!]
Beverly; ▶ Reply to This