Tricky (Molting) Icterid
By Corey • September 19, 2008 • 10 commentsSometimes an easy bird can become difficult to identify. Such was the case with the molting bird below, a species that has crossed my path hundreds of times. It is an icterid, a family that includes blackbirds, grackles, orioles, cowbirds and meadowlarks, but beyond that I was temporarily stumped. My birding partner for the day, Danny Melore, was similarly stumped. We tried very hard to make it a Yellow-headed Blackbird but there was no chance of that happening. Then we briefly considered an abberantly-plumaged Bobolink before the birds identity finally came to me like a light bulb being turned on. Do you know what it is?
Of course, it is a molting male Brown-headed Cowbird and an excellent example of how just knowing the colors of a bird’s plumage is not always enough to identify a bird. The birds shape, size, bill structure, call notes, and behaviour can all be used to figure out a bird’s identity. It is humbling to be stumped, even temporarily, by such a common bird but it served a good lesson: always think common before thinking rare!
This post has been contributed to Bird Photography Weekly #4 at Birdfreak.
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Pretty cool! Probably takes a bit to get you guys off track. Not me though. I knew immediately that it was a bird.
Them wings gave it away.
Cheers, Klaus
I had a molting cowbird give me and my friends the ID run-around awhile back. I’m glad I’m not the only one that was initially confused.
They are tricky when they are still in that “scaly” phase. At least now, we have clue when the structural coloration becomes evident.
Haha… Cowbird was my first thought.
I guess knowing the common birds well really is key.
@Klaus: Ha!
@Eva: Also glad I’m not the only one.
@Sara: Exactly.
@Tom: Sure, rub it in…
Great pictures Corey. A neat looking bird. I don’t get to see them like that very often.
Great catch of the cow bird…. I love that name.
I LOVE photos of molting birds, they are so unique and can be so tricky to I.D., Great shots!
Cool molting bird! I did guess a brown-headed cowbird. But it was mostly just a whim, and was giggling when I read that’s what it was.
I live in Va. Beach and saw the same type of molting cowbird on one of my feeders. Thought I’d made a rare discovery . . . until I looked on the ground and saw 35 of his closest readily idenifiable cowbird friends!