Name that bird

[thebratqueen]

The saga of the bomb-building birds continues. They're still working on their bomb, if the twigs and what have you that they carry up to the roof are any indication.

However it would seem that things have reached a stage where the birds are ready to advertise. I assume for a mate, because if Life has taught us anything, it's that animals only do things for entirely human reasons which just so happen to support a Disneyesque narrative about their motivations.

That brings us to the bird which is not a sparrow. I've been trying to identify him (I assume it's a him. I could be wrong.) and have not had much luck. So today I took some pictures in the hopes that perhaps one of you might know.


From this morning we have a picture of our friend in his usual spot, which is at the very top corner of the roof. None of the other birds go there. Possibly because of pecking order, possibly because the smaller birds know that it's smarter to have the bigger bird have the best view of any possible hawk attacks, possibly because they know they'll get kicked in the shins if they try.



Here's a picture from this evening, when he sat in his usual spot and decided the time was right to get the word out about the nest and/or bomb. For scale perspective, the bird next to him is a sparrow.



Finally another shot of what may be a love song, this time including dance moves.



"Come see me!" he might be saying. "I have opinions to share about pina coladas and getting caught in the rain!"

So... anybody know what kind of bird this is? And yes, I have paid more attention to these birds than Mac and Luna have at this point. Go fig.

Comments

[highlander_ii]

Hard to tell from this distance, but it looks like a Mockingbird. *is not an avid bird watcher, just a bird 'guesser'*

[thebratqueen]

You know, it didn't occur to me to try whistling at it to see if it would imitate me.

[highlander_ii]

*shrugs* worth a shot, no?

There's a mockingbird that sets up roost in the forsythia in the neighbor's yard and this bird kinda looks like that one. Thus my totally random guess. XD

[starwatcher]

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Mockingbirds are about pigeon-sized (but slimmer), mostly gray, with a flash of white under their wings when they fly. And they won't necessarily copy a whistle, but their song jumps around to different sounds, cadences and patterns. They have a longer tail and beak than this guy (part of the thrush family), and they tend to perch while singing, then occasionally jump up, flash the white under their wing, and land in the same place.

So I don't know what this is... but you'll recognize a mockingbird when you see it.

eNature is an online source with great field guides. This is the bird page. There are 130 perching birds if you want to check them out. Or it might be a a pigeon-like bird; it's hard to tell size from the pictures. At least you can rule out a whole lot of water-type and hawk-like birds.

(If it isn't obvious; I try to figure out birds a lot.)

Let us know when you figure it out?
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[thebratqueen]

Consensus over on LJ is that it's a starling. I am taking their word for it since they all sound more knowledgable about starlings than I.

[starwatcher]

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Cool! Friends-lists are great. One of mine identified my recently-posted bird picture as an osprey. I was gobsmacked.
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