Robin-Like Mystery, San Diego, CA, USA (1 Viewer)

[gsimonel]

I'm from the East Coast, USA. I was visiting my son in San Diego and seeing a lot of birds that I've never seen before, like this one with a pink eye ring. I took the photo on 12/25, in a small park abutting a wild valley with a lot of scrubby trees and dense undergrowth. Can someone ID this for me? Thanks!

 

[Butty]

Whatever the local towhee is called these days. California towhee? Note rufous vent.

 

[gsimonel]

Thank you, Butty. After learning from you that it's a towhee, I was able to find a pretty close match in my Golden Books Guide, the brown towhee. So is the California towhee a local variant of the brown towhee, or a different species that got omitted from the bird book? Anyway, I'm calling it a California towhee for now.

 

[qwerty5]

Brown Towhee was split in 1989 into two species, California Towhee and Canyon Towhee.

 

[rkj]

Thank you, Butty. After learning from you that it's a towhee, I was able to find a pretty close match in my Golden Books Guide, the brown towhee. So is the California towhee a local variant of the brown towhee, or a different species that got omitted from the bird book? Anyway, I'm calling it a California towhee for now.

Brown Towhee was split in 1989 into two species, California Towhee and Canyon Towhee.

And this is indeed a California Towhee. I loved my old Golden Guide, many years ago, but you should probably invest in a new field guide. Many bird names have been changed subsequent to the Brown Towhee split, and identification of many species has been improved since then. I like the Sibley Guide to Birds, but the National Geographic Guide is also excellent.

 

[gsimonel]

I love my old Golden Guide, too. I'm on my second copy since the first copy fell apart years ago. For a while I had both the National Geographic and the Sibley bird guides, but they just sat on the shelf because I was so much more comfortable with the G.G. So I gave them both away when I moved to Virginia 2 months ago. I'm tempted to get another copy of Silbey after reading your post, rkj, but with the Audubon Society renaming so many birds over the next two years, I wonder if it would make more sense to wait until they've finished and then pick up something with all the new names.

I wonder what they plan to call the Cooper's hawk?

 

[Butty]

...until they've finished

They won't ☹️👎🏼