March Mysteries

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: Greetings All : I agree with Evan on the bluebird. The brownish wash to the scaps should eliminate Mountain. Also, there does appear to be some brownish tones to the flanks, again favoring Western over Mountain. I am a little concerned about primary projection past tertials. There are four obvious primary tips visible, but then the wing continues, somewhat out of focus. I expect the overall projection past tertials is 6. This is much more like Mountain. But then, looking at the primary projection relative to tail length, and the bird looks ok for Western BB. I was also looking at the rather strkiking wing covert/tertial/secondary pattern. The dark tertials and secondaries plus dark lower greater wingcoverts seems seems to fit photos of Western BB more than Mountain. Indeed, the difference seems striking on the few photos available to me. Makes me wish I'd kept my father-in-law's Birders Worlds with all of the bluebird photos. I will have to look at female bluebird wing patterns this summer... But I digress. The quiz bird looks like a Western Bluebird. : I think the thrasher is a Bendire's. The yellowy eye color and bill shape should narrow the ID quandry to Bendire's or juv Curve-billed. However, the wing-covert edges are grayish white, not buffy like a juv. That should make the quiz bird a Bendire's. Additionally, the sharp arrow-shaped streaking is like a Bendire's moreso than a Curvebill. The bill color is a problem. For Bendire's, there should be a pale base to the lower mandible. At first, the bill looks all dark on the quiz bird. On looking at photo more carefully, I think the pale base to the lower mandible is actually be present, though not obvious. I've looked at a couple published photos of Bendire's, and on these birds (assuming they're correctly identified!), the pale base seems equally difficult to discern. : Cheers : Steven Mlodinow

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