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large black bird with red breast and yellow beak USA (1 Viewer)

KTown919

New member
I saw the strangest bird today in my backyard. I live in Santa Clara, CA in the USA. It landed on the pole lines. At first I thought it was a hawk because of it's size. It was the size of a crow or a red tailed hawk. But as I grabbed my binoculars I realized it was definitely not a hawk. I would guess it was 20" long, it was mostly black with a red breast and had a yellow straight beak and large pronounced black eyes. It spent some of it's time standing on one leg and was preening itself. I am totally puzzled. Looked all through my bird book and it doesn't look like anything. Please help me figure out what this bird is.
 
No it wasn't a green heron. It's body type was more similar to a crow. But it acted more like a pigeon or dove just giant sized. It is the strangest thing. I am thinking it might be some type of exotic bird that escaped from the home of the person that was raising it????
 
It sounds a bit like a Yellow-billed Magpie except for the red. They live in Alum Rock Park at least, so it would be conceivable (if unusual) for it to wander to Santa Clara.
 
I checked out some pictures of the yellow billed magpie and that doesn't look like it either. It had a shorter tail. Its body was like a crow with a short tail and the head was closer to a gulls. So strange.
 
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