Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 12:07:41 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "J. B. Churchill" Subject: Re: Help with bird identification? In-Reply-To: <3AD32BE0.B35B2DEC@home.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sounds like a Flicker to me At 11:50 AM 4/10/2001 -0400, you wrote: >Ospreyers, > >A friend here in Columbia just called me to ask what the unusual bird on >his lawn was, but from his description, I haven't a clue. He was looking >at the bird as he described it to me and responded to my questions about >it. > >The most striking feature he described was an open red triangle on the >back of its neck, "like it was wearing a neckerchief with the middle cut >out." He said its head was gray and its back was "speckled gray." He >couldn't see the undertail, but the upper side of its tail was "striped >like a zebra" and "shaped like a fish-tail." He said the breast was >primarily pale gray, but with a "pink tinge" to it. The bill was >described as black, long and pointed. > >The bird was walking around on the lawn pecking at the ground; there was >a robin there, too, and he said this bird was slightly larger than the >robin, "about the size of a blue jay," and had a longer bill than the >robin. > >I was about to say I'd be right over when he said, "Oh, a squirrel just >chased it away." > >I went through the Sibley guide almost page by page and found various >birds that matched *some* of those field marks, but I couldn't find >anything that matched all of them. > >Does anyone have the slightest idea of what he could have been looking >at? He promised to call me if it showed up again. > >Thanks, > >Sherry Peruzzi >Howard County >bookworms@home.com > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= ====================================================== John B. Churchill, M.S. Home (304) 292-5072 GIS Analyst Work (304) 293-4832 West Virginia University ext. 4456 Natural Resource Analysis Center http://www.nrac.wvu.edu/users/jbc ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================