Mystery bird, Colorado front range (1 Viewer)

[tenex]

Several seen today, in trees/bushes by a pond. Overall grey bird, about robin-sized, with some black and white on wings, some blue toward the tail... at first glance we thought juvenile Blue Jay, but not enough blue especially on the wings. And also some yellow on the throat, and a small shoulder spot. Too far away for a cell phone photo to be useful (10/12x bins used). What could this be, some other juvenile... what? (no clues on eBird so far)

 

[lockbreeze926]

Sounds in the general area of a Bluebird species, vaguely.

 

[Bewick]

Sounds in the general area of a Bluebird species, vaguely.

His description seems to indicate that the bird was large thrush sized- 'about (American) robin sized'.

 

[lockbreeze926]

One thing we have had drummed into us on here is that size is very difficult to judge in isolation. I am just trying to interpret a variety of factors in a description of something I didn’t see.

 

[tenex]

It could conceivably have been as small as a bluebird of which we have three species here, but eBird has no report of any of them in this location for the past year (which actually strikes me as odd but there it is). And there was no hint of rufous, and my wife and I agree on the yellow throat patch which no such bird we can think of has. Really very puzzling.

 

[njlarsen]

Verdin has yellow in the throat/head area, but just about everything else sounds wrong ...
Niels

 

[tenex]

Oh, that's a striking bird, but never recorded here. And the head was overall grey, only yellow on the throat. I think we'll have to write this off as a failed observation somehow. But thanks everyone.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Much smaller than a Robin but how about American or Lesser Goldfinch?

 

[Bewick]

Much smaller than a Robin but how about American or Lesser Goldfinch?

Bluish towards the tail and a yellow throat could be a moulting lazuli bunting. But a lot of the other descriptors given don’t really match for this species.

 

[tenex]

I never said "much smaller than a Robin" and think bunting is really too small, besides not having noticed a thick beak. It's frustrating, we thought we got a very good look (from a distance) but this just shows we're no experts.

 

[njlarsen]

I wonder if the yellow on the throat could be staining from pollen or fruit?

 

[foresttwitcher]

I never said "much smaller than a Robin"

I know you didn't and neither did I say that you did - I was saying that my tentative suggestion was much smaller than the Robin size you mentioned.

 

[nartreb]

Bluejays in shade can look quite greyish, but that doesn't account for the yellow throat or the shoulder spot. Also you should have noticed a distinctive diamond tail shape with white border - like a mourning dove.

hmm... a pigeon could fit most of the description and even have an iridescent patch on the neck that shows yellowish in the right light...

 

[tenex]

In case anyone is interested, I now have a likely guess prompted by the eBird photo below: Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler. Smaller than a robin, but one sees general grey color especially around the head, a yellow throat, another spot of yellow by the wings, with black and white markings... the only missing detail is any blue around the tail, which could have been a trick of lighting, and sent our thoughts in an entirely different direction.