Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:03:51 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Kevin Sperka Subject: Indigo Bunting Question MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Last week I saw a male Indigo Bunting at Kinder Farm Park which had white markings on it's lower belly. I thought at first it may be a partial albino. When looking through the Sibley guide I noticed on page 470 that there is a picture of a hybrid Indigo x Lazuli. The bird I saw at Kinder had the same white markings on the belly, but did not have white wing bars. Also, I figured that the hybrids would only be found in the section where the two birds overlap. I concluded that this was just an unusual variation of an Indigo Bunting. However, today I was birding Patapsco State Park and noticed an Indigo Bunting that looked just like the one I saw at Kinder Farm Park. Has anyone else seen male Indigo Buntings like these? Does anyone know what causes these white markings? My only other guess would be that these males have not completed molting. Kevin Sperka Catonsville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================