Durham, NC Mystery Bird

Mystery Bird (White-Throated Sparrow)
Durham, N.C.

December, 1998 Return

Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 17:55:46 -0800
From: Roger Kohn avocet@mindspring.com
To: carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu
Subject: Durham Mystery Bird!!!

The saga continues. The Durham Mystery Bird finally showed up in our yard December 23 about 3pm in the company of white-throats and juncos. This is the fourth year now for this little guy. Without question (s)he is the nicest present we got this year.

Stay cool... - Roger Kohn

Fall 1997 Return

Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 08:50:17
As of this morning, Mystery Bird is back. And since he appeared this early and in the company of the first group of white-throats I have seen in my yard this year, I think we can close the books on this fellow's identity.

Photographs

Photos by Norm Budnitz
Photos by Ken Lundstrom

Longer descriptions and comments by

Mike Tove
James Rising
Kenn Kaufman
Dennis Paulson

Archive of discussions from carolinabirds and other listservs. Many of these comments are from people who have only seen photographs of the birds. There are some messages from people who have seen the actual bird and the photos.

If you have comments, please send them to Will Cook who will post them to carolinabirds and the archive.

Photographs taken by Norm Budnitz

These photos were taken from inside the house, through glass. The Towhee and White-throated Sparrow were taken on the same feeder and from the identical camera angle so that size could be judged. Some of the photos have a large nail in them, so you may be able to get some sense of size.
To retrieve the original, large image click on the small "thumbnail" photo. The originals will probably seem quite fuzzy but you can save them to your own machine and manipulate them to look at particular details.