Saw a bird you don’t know? Send us an e-mail and we’ll answer shortly!
Quite often, we receive questions from readers asking about bird identification. Sometimes these questions include just descriptions, and other times, there are pictures as well.
We decided to include these questions and answers here. If you have questions, kindly contact us via email or leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer them here.
Question: Hey! I live in Raleigh, NC and saw this bird on my backyard fence. Any thoughts on what bird it is?? I thought maybe brown thrasher but the beak isn’t right or the dark coloring around the neck or the blue underfeathers sooo I’m not really sure
Source: Amanda Cook
Answer: I’m not 100 percent sure, but my best guess is a leucistic Brown Thrasher. In short, leucism is similar to albinism. Both are genetic mutations, but leucistic birds are not completely white and often have better chances of survival.
Question: Are CA Thrashers known to mimic Wrentits?
There are no Wrentits in my rural neighborhood in Southern San Luis Obispo Co, on the Nipomo Mesa. (not in my 35 years here) but I heard the bouncing ball call this morning. Might it have been a Thrasher? Have never heard one do that call here. I have Thrashers and other scrub habitat birds in my yard every day, and have heard Jay, Oak Titmouse, Robin and others in their calls, but never a wrentit!
Birdzilla: I’m not sure if California Thrashers mimic Wrentits but since they do mimic all sorts of birds, I would guess that they can imitate them. However, as with their other mimicry, it would probably just be parts of the Wrentit song and not the whole thing. With that in mind, I wonder if an adventurous Wrentit might have finally arrived in your neighborhood.
If you see the thrasher making Wrentit sounds or an actual Wrentit, please let us know!
Question: Hi, I saw a bird in my yard today that I can’t identify. Smaller than a cardinal, gray on the upper half, soft yellow flanks, stripe on top of head. Ground feeding. Most notably, it did a constant dance with its butt bobbing up and down. In the CSRA. Any ideas? Thanks!!
Birdzilla: From your description, it sounds like the bird may have been a Louisiana or Northern Waterthrush
Question:
My daughter saw this bird, perched under the eaves of where she works at night. It is near dense woods, and being that it was nocturnal I thought it might be a nightjar or whippoorwill, but the way the feathers were ruffled in the way it looks so ratty I thought was strange, she did say the bird got disturbed and appeared to fly away. I’ve never seen anything like this and wondered what it might be. I apologize for the poor photo.
Answer: Odd bird- that is definitely weird. Unfortunately, without a better image, I don’t know what it is. Offhand, because of the short wings and longer barred tail, it reminds me of a fluffed up Carolina Wren. I would love to see a better photo of it.
Saw a bird you don’t know? Send us an e-mail and we’ll answer shortly!