Date: 4/12/25 12:48 pm From: HR Parks <hrparks...> Subject: Re: [GABO-L] Mystery bird in SW Harris County-UPDATE
Thanks to everyone who responded. I really appreciate folks taking the time
to help. Most responses so far agree that the mystery bird is a FEMALE
COWBIRD. I have spent the last hour scrolling through online photos of
those birds. Most do NOT resemble my bird, but - a surprise to me - a few
did. This is my day to have egg on my face and to learn more about
identifying female cowbirds, including what they eat. I had given up
feeding sunflower seeds and millet. Instead I was feeding dried
mealworms in the BirdBuddy and unwittingly attracting them. Over a long
life, I have lived many places and fed birds in all of them without having
cowbirds visit, so I was shocked to have to deal with them here. It's never
too late to learn.
If anyone still wants to comment or view either my original pics or the
online photos I saved, please email me privately.
Thanks again.
May your birds be many and varied, and may none of them be cowbirds.
Eve
On Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM HR Parks <hrparks...> wrote:
> Hello, Fellow Birders,
> At my BirdBuddy this week, I had a mystery bird with a lot of pale yellow
> on it. Bird Buddy identified it as a brown-Headed Cowbird, Which seems
> Totally wrong to me. When I tried the Merlin photo ID, it also said
> brown-headed cowbird. But, nothing about the bird looks like a cowbird to
> me. Wrong shape, wrong color, wrong beak.
>
> The bird has a lot of yellow on it, including a yellow throat with black
> marks on each side of the throat. It appears to be Oriole-sized with an
> Oriole-shaped body and beak. The breast is rather heavily straight, but not
> darkly so.
>
> If anyone has any ideas or would like to see the pictures, please email me
> privately, and I will send you the photos, including a video. I’d be
> grateful for any help. Thanks much.
> Eve Parks
> Fortson, Georgia
>
>
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