Dennis Paulson, author of "Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest" lends his opinion: _________________________________ Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 09:20:01 +0000 From: Dennis Paulson dpaulson@ups.edu To: cwcook@acpub.duke.edu Subject: mystery bird About your mystery bird: there's not much I can add to the lengthy discussion except to counter the statement about Fox Sparrow bill colors. In my experience, Fox Sparrows of all subspecies (or species) have a dark bill with a mostly yellow lower mandible. I haven't seen any differences (and we see all 3 of the putative species in Washington), notwithstanding the paintings in some books and the photos in the Audubon Master Guide. The markings on the upperparts are definitely not like those found in finches (Fringillidae), even though that large bill recalls that of a finch, and it's unlikely that a fringillid and an emberizid would hybridize. The markings on the scapulars and coverts also eliminate Fox Sparrow (unless as one of the parents of a hybrid with another sparrow with that sort of marking). And I don't see the breast streaking as looking particularly like that of a Fox Sparrow. The markings on the upperpart indeed look like those on either Zonotrichia or Melospiza sparrows. The bill really does look relatively large to me, and it's very difficult to make the bird an aberrant individual of one of the emberizines such as the White-throated that should be in the area. Hybridization seems more likely, but the bird doesn't easily match any hybrid pair. Junco x White-throat isn't illogical, but Mr. or Ms. Mystery (I wouldn't declare the bird a male just because it has "rich colors") definitely doesn't show either intermedicacy or a patchwork of characters of those two species. What it is will take some sophisticated reasoning indeed, and I can't imagine a better idea than to capture the bird, carefully examine and measure it, and pull out a few tail feathers that might yield some important genetic data. And, referring to Jim Rising's mention of erythristic towhees, a friend of mine photographed a towhee (presumably Spotted) at her feeder in Seattle this winter that was largely rufous, also much black; not a trace of white on the belly or tail; red eyes. It showed some rufous stripes on the black scapulars where the Spotted normally has white stripes. The originators of the World Wide Web probably never had a clue what it would mean to the birding community! Dennis Paulson _________________________________ Date sent: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 09:38:18 +0000 From: Dennis Paulson dpaulson@ups.edu To: cwcook@acpub.duke.edu Subject: mystery bird This discussion made me think of a neat idea. Maybe someone out there will pick up on it. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a book titled Hybrid Birds? Some person with good museum connections and an artist as collaborator could do nothing more than describe and illustrate all the known interspecific hybirds in birds. What a fascinating bunch of color plates! It would bring together a literature that is extremely fragmented and be interesting not only to birders but evolutionary biologists. I expect 10% of the royalties.... Dennis Paulson
Lois Schultz
Duke University
Durham, NC USA