What did I see? (1 Viewer)

[lizmcm]

Yesterday while out driving down an Essex country lane I spotted what I thought was a sparrow in the road. I kept an eye on it, so that I didn't run it over, and then spotted that it had a dark blue patch on its wings. I've looked in my Collins and on the web, but I can't find anything that could match.
Not much to go on as I saw it for only a few seconds - perhaps a little larger than a sparrow, but not nearly as large as a blackbird - and that dark blue patch. Any ideas please?
Liz

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Any more details?

the only thing I can think of at the moment would be hawfinch, but surely you´d also have noticed the huge bill and white on tail and wings then?

 

[jforgham]

Hi,
I have just been in the process of loading up a hawfinch picture, as the comment of blue lead me straight to that answer. However, not yet put up the photo. Shall endeavour to complete the task
Jono

Try;
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=55738

 

[lizmcm]

Definitely not a hawfinch. It's main colouring was dark brown - which made me think it was a sparrow. I'm not sure if it was the primaries or secondaries that were dark blue in colour. I just remember saying to myself "that was pretty" & made a mental note to look it up when I got home. I thought it would be easy from what I remembered, i.e. sparrowlike with dark blue in its wings - but no such bird in my books!

 

[jforgham]

Definitely not a hawfinch. It's main colouring was dark brown - which made me think it was a sparrow. I'm not sure if it was the primaries or secondaries that were dark blue in colour. I just remember saying to myself "that was pretty" & made a mental note to look it up when I got home. I thought it would be easy from what I remembered, i.e. sparrowlike with dark blue in its wings - but no such bird in my books!

Liz,
When you saw the blue on the wings, was the bird in flight or still sitting in the road? Did you notice any other plumage details or was it all brown. Did you see it in flight and did it give you any particular pattern to ifs flight?
Jono

 

[Tranquility Base]

Did it look like THIS?

 

[lizmcm]

Liz,
When you saw the blue on the wings, was the bird in flight or still sitting in the road? Did you notice any other plumage details or was it all brown. Did you see it in flight and did it give you any particular pattern to ifs flight?
Jono

jforgham...
It was still sat on the road as I was almost level. I couldn't watch it any more as I had to watch the road ahead.

Clouseau...
That's the nearest likeness I've seen so far, but I don't remember the tail being that long. Also, the blue was in the area I've circled. What is this bird?
Lovely photo - sorry to deface it.
Liz

 

[Tranquility Base]

jforgham...
It was still sat on the road as I was almost level. I couldn't watch it any more as I had to watch the road ahead.

Clouseau...
That's the nearest likeness I've seen so far, but I don't remember the tail being that long. Also, the blue was in the area I've circled. What is this bird?
Lovely photo - sorry to deface it.
Liz

Hi Liz!
The bird is an Indigo Bunting!
I've only seen one: in Wells Wood, Norfolk, UK a LONG time ago! But the blue panel on the wing was very striking...........

 

[lizmcm]

Hi Liz!
The bird is an Indigo Bunting!
I've only seen one: in Wells Wood, Norfolk, UK a LONG time ago! But the blue panel on the wing was very striking...........

It would be lovely to think my bird was one, but I had discounted Indigo Bunting because Collins states that it's rare in UK. Do you really think mine could be one? I agree that the blue panel was certainly very striking.
Liz

 

[Tranquility Base]

Hi Liz!
LOTS of birds are rare in the UK! You might well be the finder of one of them!
Any sign since?
(PS: SOMEONE has to find these poor waifs and strays! Why not YOU?! LOL!)

 

[postcardcv]

The bird you saw might have been a juv bullfinch - they don't have the dark cap of the adults and the wing panel can look blue if it catches the light.

 

[Tranquility Base]

And a Chaffinch can look like a White Stork if it's very close and in a beam of intense light!

 

[baccalynnwv]

all the indigo buntings in the US are all blue..no brown, males anyway...no wing bars...the females are brown like a sparrow with sometimes hardly noticable blue on the wings and tail I think. (Don't often see female.. but see male all the time) Course I have no idea what they look like when they are younger... I don't think this was your bird..

http://images.google.com/images?q=indigo bunting&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[Tranquility Base]

all the indigo buntings in the US are all blue..no brown,

Erm......... NOT! The picture I posted is of an Indigo Bunting......... Does it look 'all brown'?

 

[crispycreme]

Clouseau, it looks to me like your pic is of a Blue Grosbeak, not an Indigo Bunting. The bill is far too big for the slight-billed bunting. And baccal is right, the female Indigo only has a trace of blue on the wing (if that). Compare the female grosbeak here:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Blue_Grosbeak.html

.. to the female bunting here:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Indigo_Bunting.html

(unless of course I've stumbled into a nomenclature problem and the European's Indigo Bunting is our Blue Grosbeak!)

 

[Tranquility Base]

Clouseau, it looks to me like your pic is of a Blue Grosbeak, not an Indigo Bunting. The bill is far too big for the slight-billed bunting. And baccal is right, the female Indigo only has a trace of blue on the wing (if that). Compare the female grosbeak here:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Blue_Grosbeak.html

.. to the female bunting here:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Indigo_Bunting.html

(unless of course I've stumbled into a nomenclature problem and the European's Indigo Bunting is our Blue Grosbeak!)

Well here's another female INDIGO Bunting! (Same source as the first!)
The bird in this pic really seems to fit the original description.. But what do I know? LOL!

 

[postcardcv]

the suggestion of juv bullfinch was meant seriously (though clearly not taken that way) I have seen a number that have appeared to show blue in the wing. This pic in the galley illustrates what I mean -
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/53556/sort/1/cat/all/page/1

Seems to fit the original description fairly well - slightly larger than a sparrow, dark blue panel in the wing - the fact that it did not fly, but just sat still sound good for it being a juv.

 

[jforgham]

Good work postcardcv. Thought the dismissive attitude to your earlier suggestion a little impertinent although maybe meant in jest. Good photo. Be interesting to see future comments from Liz. Always puzzles me why so many of the id's on sites such as these rapidly degenerate into the chance of it being a most implausible bird. 99% of the time it is quite a normal bird.
Jono

 

[Seymour Birdies]

I agree with Jono.

First of all it is much more likely to be a common bird than a mega.

Secondly, it think that juv Bullfinch fits the description very well.

Seymour

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

If you can exclude hawfinch, then for Europe the juv. bullfinch-theory sounds far more likely to me than indigo bunting, which would be a mega here...