• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

black & white bird with orange beak and very long tail feathers (1 Viewer)

jenihig

New member
FLORIDA- black & white bird w/ orange beak & very long tail feathers

We spotted this bird today in our front yard. The neighbor spotted him about a week ago and thinks he is a scissortail flycatcher but the pics I have found of those are more brown. This is definitely black and white. Any ideas? We live in the Panhandle of Florida near Pensacola. I have lived here my whole life (almost 38 years) and have never seen this bird. Neighbor is 87 and he said the same thing ;)

Thank you!!!
 

Attachments

  • cropped bird pic.jpg
    cropped bird pic.jpg
    103.5 KB · Views: 3,291
Last edited:
Pretty bird.
I have no idea, but the beak (bill) is not typical of any kind of flycatcher, that I've seen.
 
Reminds me of a Pin-tailed Whydah.....we had a few in the pet shop I used to work in ten years ago.

I'm not so good on birds outside of Britain and Europe though so it'll be interesting to see what someone else reckons who HAS got experience of American birds :t: It's certainly a stunner.....if that's what your birds are like in Florida I want to visit ASAP!!! ;)
 
Pin-tailed Whydah - seem to be fairly common in Florida as there's been quite a few threads about these guys lately.
 
Woooohoooo gold star to Gilly o:) I don't often get id threads correct ;) :-O Give me another 20 years and I'll be looking at all those little brown jobs wthout breaking into a cold sweat! ;)
 
Something to compete with the cowbirds!!!

These birds are parasitic breeders with Estrildid finches being the usual hosts -what on earth are their host species in Florida?
Are there lots of escaped Waxbills in Florida?
 
I agree on Pin-tailed Wydah, must be an escapee from a pet store... I don't know of any established populations of this species anywhere in North America.
 
First of all, jenihig, welcome to Birdforum.

I don't know about Florida, but pin-tailed Whydah is established and doing well in Puerto Rico, where they use several African species as host, that are also established there. I would by no means be surprised to hear the same being true for S Florida. (after all, "Parrots of the world" is jokingly called Birds of Dade County).

Niels
 
First of all, jenihig, welcome to Birdforum.

I don't know about Florida, but pin-tailed Whydah is established and doing well in Puerto Rico, where they use several African species as host, that are also established there. I would by no means be surprised to hear the same being true for S Florida. (after all, "Parrots of the world" is jokingly called Birds of Dade County).

Niels

Do you know which species it uses there as a host, Niels?
 
I have not studied that, and have only seen a note in some fieldguide, which is at home at the moment. However, Puerto Rico has populations of yellow-crowned and orange bishop, and Orange-cheeked and Black-rumped Waxbill to mention the most likely hosts, and in addition some Lonchura sp which I don't think would work. I think I read somewhere that the total number of introduced, established species on PR was something like 32 or 38.

cheers
Niels
 
Niels, Thank you for information!

I thought these wydahs are parasitic breeders with each using one or a few Estrildid finches with siimilar mouth pattern, and are in themselves highly adapted to that by their nestlings also have practically a similar mouth pattern as the preferred hosts -because the host selects against this by not feeding youn with wrong mouth pattern and switching to another potentially possible host is near impossible, but this seems not necessarily so, see this for example:

http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/stats/adu/bn8_2_06.htm

Having read through the web, Pintailed seems the most adaptable of the wydah species in regard to hosts...
 
Last edited:
I saw this bird at an indoor tropical plant greenhouse thing at the Fred Meijer botanical gardens in Grand Rapids. I was wondering what they were so this saves me a thread. Thanks!
 
Here's your little guy - Pin-tailed Whydah Vidua macroura, photographed in Western Cape Province, South Africa. Yours must be an escapee.
Best wishes,
Dave
 

Attachments

  • Pin-tailed Whydah (m).jpg
    Pin-tailed Whydah (m).jpg
    138.7 KB · Views: 522
I saw the exact same bird while walking on Tuesday morning in Northwest Florida (Pensacola). I have been trying to find out what type of bird it is as well. Flycatcher is as far as I got. Nothing seems to have the orange beak.
 
Pin-tailed Whydah Vidua macroura is exactly what it is

I am so glad that I found this forum! I wish I could see the bird again but we have only seen him that one time & he was spotted by my neighbor about a week prior to showing up in our yard. He was beautiful!
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top