Strange baby bird? (1 Viewer)

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geoshar18

Active member

• Jul 24, 2003

• #1

At least I think it is a juvenile....it is the size of a robin, and appears to have a tuft on top. (We are in Eastern Ontario.)
The photo isn't too clear..used a zoom lens but was still quite far away.
Does anyone have any ideas what it might be? (Very much bigger than the purple finches we have around here.)

 

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Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Jul 24, 2003

• #2

Can't think of anything that big with that color head. I have to fall back on 'escaped exotic'-- mebbe a Red-crested Cardinal?

 

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geoshar18

Active member

• Jul 24, 2003

• #3

Thank you for your reply Charles.
I had also posted the same photo on another birding site..and received the following response----->

"OOOOHHHH!!!!!!!
that would be a baby red-headed white-bellied brown-tailed feathered-plumper. They are very rare, and once thought to be extinct.
Your sighting could well make the ornithology books! Call Cornell!
Call Audubon! "

Do you know of such a birds existence??

 

Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Jul 24, 2003

• #4

They're pulling you leg, Geo. Better to start studying the book and form your own considered opinions on what you see. Any chapter on Feather-plumpers in your birdbook?

 

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geoshar18

Active member

• Jul 24, 2003

• #5

LOL I know..it was MEANT to be a joke!
(They are just as stumped as you are.)

 

Doug

Well-known member

• Jul 24, 2003

• #6

Nearest thing i have seen to this is a Common Rosefinch - I don't think this is one of those but does it get us in the right direction?

 

Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Jul 24, 2003

• #7

Don't much care for that site, then, Geo. ...No rosefinches in Ontario, either. Are they cagebirds?

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 24, 2003

• #8

I must admit the first thing that struck me was a "Carpodacus-type" finch, i.e Purple/House Finch. Our Common Rosefinches in Europe are closely related to your Purple Finches and House Finches but you say it was much bigger than the Purple Finches, so that doesn't seem right. But there are numerous finches in this family and I imagine they are often kept as caged birds.

E

 

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geoshar18

Active member

• Jul 24, 2003

• #9

Edward, we have many house finches, purple finches and red-poles in the area...this bird looked nothing like them.
It also has a "tuft"..not a crest as seen on the cardinals.
I couldn't tell the beak type, it was too far away.
(It had fluffed its feathers as an injured bird will do.)

I was wondering if it could be some kind of small hawk or bird of prey?

 

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Mark D

BOG member

• Jul 24, 2003

• #10

Hi
I would have to agree with Charles' first guess, an escapee Red-crested Cardinal. I don't think it is a raptor of any kind.
The plumage detail that can be seen on the photo looks good for the cardinal. With it being fluffed up it would look bigger than it would normally. Tuft verses crest, what about moult? the majority of birds here in the UK are moulting at the moment, could it have lost some of the crest feathers creating a tuft.

Mark

 

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geoshar18

Active member

• Jul 24, 2003

• #11

Well goodness I have been doing my homework, ..and it sure DOES look like a Red-crested cardinal!
Apparently they can survive in the wild, and endure a winter.

Wonder where the "baby" came from?
(Would one mate with a wild bird...say a cardinal?)

Our blue jays are moulting..so I guess that is also a possibility.

 

CJW

Hit-and-run WUM

• Jul 24, 2003

• #12

Definitely not a Blue Jay

 

G

geoshar18

Active member

• Jul 25, 2003

• #13

LOL no..not a Blue jay! But the moulting season is upon us.
;-)

 

sparroweye

Well-known member

• Jul 26, 2003

• #14

Maybe, in the grosbeak family. Or maybe a white winged
crossbill. It's not a pine siskin. Does it have a beak like a grossbeak? Is that just a glare on its chest, or is that white?
That is a very weird bird.

 

G

geoshar18

Active member

• Jul 27, 2003

• #15

I did a little research in one of my very old bird books..[my grandma's]
My guess is I saw a juvenile Pine Grosbeak..as an adult it can reach about 9 to 10 inches. Its colors can vary for the male,
from a deep rose to almost a bright poppy color..darker wings will have white bars and it will have a very slight forking to its tail.
The breast can start of very light color of the head and blend out to pale underside in the female..and or juvenile.
Not usually a migratory bird..They are the largest of all the grosbeaks. We have the red-breasted grosbeak here..and the evening grosbeak about 1/2 the yr.
The picture in my old book[very small handbook is colored old drawings..] but I am convinced it must be my first "Pine grosbeak" sighting.