Posted by Kristie Nelson (209.86.218.54) on May 25, 2002 at 12:47:11:
Wow!
I have never been so flabbergasted for any previous mystery photo!! I drew nothing but a total blank for quite a while. However, something I noticed right away which has not been mentioned, is that this bird look like a youngster. The base of the primaries appear to be in sheath, and the tail looks a bit short (like it has not compleatly grown out).
A juvenile junco should be streaky. Although the tail looks like it has a bunch of white, my vote is for juvenile black-chinned sparrow. The white shows most in the picture when the tail is back-lit, and I think it may just be the light shining through. The tail looks darker (all dark?) in the more shadowed picture. It also dosn't show a dark lore like the junco should.
Another interesting thing is that the feet and legs look blue and chunky, kind of like a vireo or oriole. I'll just let that go.
a fun picture,
Kristie