Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 15:13:10 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jeff Marx Subject: Re: Brewer's Blackbird? In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Tyler, If there is any frost or even a thin liquid coating on the feathers, then the iridescent colors you see will be different then the colors on a warm, dry bird. Iridescence, actually an inference phenomena, is very sensitive to the spacing and distances between the various parts of the feather responsible for color. Small changes in those distances, or a coating on the feathers, can easily mute or change the colors you see. I would let the bird defrost and dry off, then look at in the sunlight. (You may even get to see the eye color.) I would caution against drawing any final conclusions though. Did you consider a Rusty, which is around the same size as a Brewer's? (However, I if I recall correctly, Rustys have yellow eyes, too) Later, Jeff At 02:02 PM 04/26/2001 -0400, you wrote: >When I got to work today, there was a voice mail from a coworker. There >was a dead bird caught in one of the crab pots stored out back. The bird >is in the freezer. So, I looked at it and was baffled. It's about 9.5 >inches long. Definitely and icterid and in summer plumage. I took it >outside to look at the irridescence. The head is greenish, the shoulders >are purplish, and the wings are greenish. The only bird I can come up with >is Brewer's Blackbird. The eye is frosted so is of no use. > >Any ideas? > >Tyler Bell >mailto:bell@acnatsci.org >California, MD > >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================