Misidentification Other "Blue Birds"

Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 20:18:51 -0500
From: "Jess" jessb"at"afo.net
To: "BLUEBIRD-L" BLUEBIRD-L"at"cornell.edu
Subject: Fw: interesting happening

Can anyone help this person? Send mail to: skc0227"at"alltel.net

Jess
****
From: "Sharon Collins" skc0227"at"alltel.net
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2000 5:49 PM
Subject: interesting happening

We have recently had a male bluebird outside a high window flying up and
down and then lighting on the ledge and singing as if to get our
attention. He did this all day Sunday. We noticed no birds were going
inside one of the houses. We took it down and cleaned it, including a
bees nest in top of the house. Thinking this is what he wanted, we were
satisfied. Then today, he started all over again. What can he be
trying to tell us. We live in the North Georgia Mtns. and have lots of trees around our house. ???????

Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 23:26:44 -0400
From: "birdlady" birdlady"at"netstorm.net
Subject: Interesting Happening

Hello Sharon:

You mention the male bluebird is perching on a high window ledge of your home singing. I have a question: Is your house newly built? Perhaps last year he had a nest there in the trees and is taking advantage of a new location. Option #2: He could be seeing his reflection which would require covering the window to
obliterate the "other bird" he sees. As long as he is not hitting the window with his wings he does not consider the reflection threatening. As soon as he finds a mate and gets down to business he should abandon the window.

Let us know what happens with this Georgia singer!

Betty Nichols, Middletown, Maryland

Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 09:12:20 EDT
From: Lisagm1970"at"aol.com
Subject: Strange sighting

Lisa Miller, Murfreesboro, TN

I was sitting at the breakfast table, looking out this morning, and what did my eyes see..."my" dad bluebird at my thistle feeder...NO...upon closer examination, it was a Mountain Bluebird at my thistle feeder. I looked up and saw blue and just assumed, then I thought, what the heck? What's he doing there? Had to look closer, still half asleep, and realized! So first of all, what's he doing in Middle TN, and secondly, do they usually eat thistle seed? Is he here to stay, or just passing through? I looked at my handy dandy bluebird book, and it doesn't seem that he should even be passing through!! Can someone tell me what's up...

Lisa Miller,
Murfreesboro, TN

Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 09:56:06 -0400
From: "Bruce Burdett" blueburd"at"srnet.com
Subject: Re: Strange sighting

Lisa: - At risk of making you very angry, could I suggest that possibly you saw an Indigo Bunting on your thistle feeder. They ARE all blue, they DO like thistle seed, and they ARE more common in Murfreesboro than the Mountain Bluebird. Check this out with your local Audubon people. See what they say. And look up the bunting in a bird guide. Look closely at the beak. Dean, Fred, Hatch, Rhonda, Dorene, etc., et al, please confirm or deny. Don't leave me hanging here.
Bruce Burdett, Sunapee NH...

Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 12:44:24 -0700
From: "Tena Taylor" tenataylor"at"tycom.net
Subject: Strange Sighting

Tena Taylor, Calhoun County, Mississippi
Summertime in Mississippi...it was 91* at 10 this morning!

Lisa, Bruce and all...I'm not so far from Lisa in Tennessee, and we also have the pretty Blue Grosbeaks in this part of the country. They're more the size of Eastern Bluebirds...flocks of the indigo's..they're much smaller.

Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 14:04:38 -0500
From: "Fread Loane" firefrost2"at"earthlink.net
Subject: Lisa's Strange Sighting

Dear Lisa:
The sigthing of a Mountain Bluebird in your region would be most unusual, tho not impossible. Get out your bird ID books and look at the Blue Evening Grosbeak. I would also check on the Indigo Bunting, as Bruce suggested. Please let us know more about this sighting.
Fread J. Loane
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 18:16:40 EDT
From: "Rwatts" rwatts"at"mymailstation.com
To: bluebird-l"at"cornell.edu
Subject: Re:Re: Strange sighting

I'd vote for the Indigo Bunting, too. I went through much the same frantic thumbing of bird books when one came to my feeders!! One difference you will notice is the type of blue the Indigo is-- it sort of refracts, so that out of direct light, the bird looks almost black. Very interesting, very beautiful, and Lisa, you are * very* lucky!
Rhonda
Wilton, N.H...

Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Joe Hurst of Port Stanley, Ontario had the most Eastern nesting of a male mountain Bluebird that mated with a female eastern Bluebird in the early 1980's (give or take a few years!) Port Stanley is on the north shore of Lake Erie approximately due north of Cleveland, Ohio. This was a very famous bird for that summer and the two (?) nestings produced eggs but no hatched young that year, although many hybrids from these two species have been recorded further west. I just saw an Indigo Bunting this past week and several male Painted Buntings! Now those are colorful birds! KK

Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 08:00:23 -0500
From: "STEPHEN GARR" garrbiv"at"dellnet.com
Subject: Lisa's bluebird/indigo/grosbeak

Steve & Regina Garr
Mt. Juliet, TN(East of Nashville - 30 mins from Lisa's town of Murfreesboro)

Hi Lisa,
Like many others yesterday I echo the idea that you have been honored with the presence of a gorgeous indigo bunting or blue grosbeak. The indigo's in our area are really becoming prevalent this time of year(they are so gorgeous...well the males...the female is pretty in her
own plane brown little way!) The indigo buntings seem to frequent the thistle feeders more than the blue gross beaks - they BOTH really enjoy
White Safflower Seed on a platform feeder, and the indigos LOVE Sunflower HEARTS (in a tube feeder with short perches or a cage around  it...Starlings also love Sunflower Hearts). We also see them allot at the birdbaths with moving water. They love blackberry patches.We start seeing them every year about mid to late April, and gradually have 12 to 20 at our house , THEN (as they migrate on) we have a few pair that remain to nest in our area and stay till the end of August or September (although some folks out your way have reported them as late as mid October.)

SHELBY BOTTOMS at Shelby Park has LOTS, AND LOTS of Indigos right now...people see them perched on top of the boxes on our bluebird trail, and frequently stop us on the trail to tell us we have bluebirds getting ready to nest in them - they certainly are (in our opinion) one of the prettiest "blue" colored birds, just not "bluebirds" . But who knows - we never say never - we are only assuming that you had an indigo bunting or blue grosbeak. Anyway, We certainly hope you are still getting to enjoy that lovely bird! Steve & Regina Garr

Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 11:43:23 -0400
From: "Bruce Burdett" blueburd"at"srnet.com
Subject: How big?

To: The Constituency,
Perhaps the SIZE of the blue bird at Lisa's thistle feeder is the key. The Blue Grosbeak is about the size of a Bluebird, (about 7") The Indigo Bunting is smaller, more the size of a Goldfnch, or even a Pine Siskin. (about 5.5") Also, check out the beaks. The Blue Grosbeak, has just that, a gross beak, - large, fat, and powerful. The Bunting's is small and quite stubby. The Bluebird's is different from both of them; longer than the bunting's, and thinner than the grosbeak's. At least that's the way they are in New Hampshire.
Bruce Burdett, NH Bluebird Conspiracy, Sunapee NH
blueburd"at"srnet.com
...

Lisa Miller Murfreesboro, TN
Thanks for all the info, and of course no one would offend me by saying this could be some other bird. Here's the thing...It is definitely not a bunting, because it is too "blue" like the bluebird blue. Its beak is long and slender, very dainty, and it is about the size of my male EABL. It was on top of my platform feader, and I got a better look at its face, and I now have my camera ready in case he makes another appearance. The other birds make sense, but he just doesn't look like the pictures I have of them. I will say that he is ALL blue, without the little white tuft near the legs like all the pictures of Mountain Bluebirds that I've seen. I'm open to any more suggestions, and I'm hoping to snap his picture.

Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 07:50:57 -0500
From: "STEPHEN GARR" garrbiv"at"dellnet.com
Subject: Re: Update on strange sighting

Steve & Regina Garr
Mt. Juliet, TN

Lisa ,
Any similarity to the Blue Grosbeak lots of folks mentioned? (Although I probably wouldn't call a their beak "slender") I did have a female Blue Grosbeak at the feeder just yesterday.

Who Knows?! REMEMBER - when it comes to the colors, many birds don't look like they are "supposed" to when they are immature , even though they are the size of an adult. Best of Luck with the photo and ID.
Steve & Regina

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 16:33:31 -0700
From: "Jim Williams" twojays"at"win.bright.net
Subject: dark bluebird

DO NOT RESPOND TO SENDER. HE IS MERELY FORWARDING THIS NOTE. DO NOT RESPOND TO BLUEBIRD-L. AUTHOR OF THIS NOTE IS NOT A MEMBER OF THIS NET SO HE WILL NOT SEE RESPONSES THAT ARE NOT DIRECTED TO HIS EMAIL ADDRESS. SEE END OF MessaGE.

Today at our county recycling site I saw an unusual bluebird. He (I think it was a he) was nearly a uniform black/blue all over. There was no doubt about it being a eastern bluebird. He was feeding with several other bluebirds (probably this years family) and sang several times as I watched. I've seen one albino and several clutches of white eggs but this was a first. Have you had any other reports of this color variation? I'm a charter NABS member and maintain a trail in case you thought I was an over excited bird watcher. To tell the truth had I not spend some time watching him I would have thought it was an indigo bunting.

Andrew Hartley
anhartley"at"pbtcomm.net

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 21:32:21 -0400
From: "Paul Murray" paul"at"fifthdaycreations.com
Subject: Re: dark bluebird

I might be wrong and I can't recall where, but I once read in a publication that bluebirds are not really blue but black. That the feathers are a color black that look blue when the light hits it.

,Paul

Fifth Day Creations
http://www.fifthdaycreations.com

...

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 22:24:37 EDT
From: JaneHopeC"at"aol.com
Subject: Re: dark bluebird

I have read ( in the Audobon Society Field Guide ) that it is the Indigo Bunting that has no blue pigment and is actually black. The diffraction of light through the feathers makes them appear blue. Had not heard this about Bluebirds or Blue Grosbeaks. Why is this? And why don't other birds that are black ( crows etc. ) appear to be blue? Is there something different about the Indigo Bunting's feathers?

Jane
Pound Ridge
NY

...

Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 08:25:23 -0700
From: "Nicholas A. Zbiciak" nzbiciak"at"gfn.org
Subject: RE: dark bluebird

Seems like the grackle's neck is a match for this black-looks-blue. So is Superman's hair ;- )

Nicholas

...

Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 21:19:05 -0500
From: "Tom Lamon" cindy3"at"newnorth.net
Subject: Pigment vs. Diffraction

Birds that have irridescent feathers have "back" feathers when the light hits them wrong, but when the light is reflected off the feather right, you see colors. The different colors are produced by the thickness of the layers of feather material. The iridescent feathers have layers of the stuff, sort of like scales. So crows just have feathers that absorb the light, and grackles have iridescent feathers. Baybe the scales came off the "black" blue bird, and since the feathers were no longer iridescent, it was black.

Addie from Eagle River WI

From: "Tami Wires" twires"at"peoplepc.com
Subject: junco sighting, different Blue bird and help with bird book-OT
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 19:45:33 -0400

Hi list,

I am soon going to be getting a bird ID book...wondering if any of you have a favorite...National Audobon (sp?) Society? or Peterson's? Are there other good ones? Especially for someone living in Ohio and/or the upper midwest....

Also, saw my first junco of the season...beautiful bird! And either a western bluebird or a mountaind bluebird traversed my yard this afternoon, not an EABB as the color was much more purplish blue and the bird was slimmer...

And, John S., six EABB's (2 female and 4 male) were in and out of the box you built me this afternoon...supposed to be 35 degrees tonight! Stuffed the air vents with styrofoam and covered the bottom with alumium foil and pine needles just Wednesday! Hope they find it to their liking and spend the night huddled in it!

Tami in Albany, Ohio

From: "Mandy Hils" ahils"at"home.com
Subject: Re: junco sighting, different Blue bird and help with bird book-OT
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 17:41:40 -0400

Maybe your "different" bluebird was an Indigo Bunting? They are still in the process of migration.

Mandy

From: Shane Marcotte marco50"at"bellsouth.net
Subject: Another Bluebird?
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 7:49:23 -0500

Hello All,
While looking thru my new copy of "National Geographic Field guide to the birds of North America" I discovered a subspecies Eastern Bluebird. They called it a "South Western" with the scientific classification "fulva".

It is said to be a resident of the mountains of southeastern Arizona.

Any one familiar with this one? Can you give me any more insight?All this time I was under the impression that there was only the Eastern, Western, and Mountain Bluebirds. Are there subspecies to the Western and Mountain?

I counted 11 Bluebirds on the wire yesterday.I dont feed them anything yet but they are obviously finding something because they have not left yet.

Maybe its just not cold enough yet.Its 31 here in South Louisiana this morning. Happy Bluebirding,

Shane Marcotte
LBBS Watson La

From: "paul kilduff" plkldf"at"hotmail.com
Subject: Re: bluebirds / bluejays
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 16:19:28

And the amount of sheer ignorance is boundless. Some people think
that Bluejays and Bluebirds are the same thing. Many have never seen a
Bluebird in their lives.

Anybody seen "K-PAX"? The "bluebird of happiness" plays an interesting role in the movie, which I thought was excellent, BTW. However, the bluebird of happiness in the movie is PLAYED by a blueJAY! It's not a mistake on the filmmakers' part, but they jay is after all, a bird, and it is blue...

Paul Kilduff
Baltimore MD USA

Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Last Sunday I was taken on a tour of the Shaw nature preserve about 30
minutes west of St. Louis MO. It is a 2,300 acre parcel of land purchased in
1920 that was going to be turned into the "new" St. Louis Botanical Gardens.
In the 1920's the 79 acres of botanical gardens in "town" were so polluted
with coal dust and mining and manufacturing dust and fumes that nearly ALL
of the plants at the gardens, collected from all over the world, were DYING
from human created pollution!

By the 1930's they were feverishly trying to save plants by digging them up
there in town and moving them to cleaner air and fresh, tall grass prairie
soil west of town on this new land. Then natural gas pipe lines came to town
in the mid 1930's and they banned the burning of coal in the area. Banned
some types of manufacturing. The air cleaned up, plants quit dying and by
1950 the population in St. Louis EXPLODED to 660,000 people! (Of course
today there are 2,500,000 people living in "greater" St. Louis.)

OK on the preserve there are LOTS of bluebird nestboxes and pulling in I saw
not ONE but TWO photographers with those huge, 20" long white telephoto lens
that cost more than my pick-up truck did when it was new! They were staked
out on massive tripods and zoomed in on a nestbox! Monster camera bags were
at their feet. I COULD not stand not sneaking up on them to get closer to a
"dream" camera set-up....

I introduced myself and asked, "What are you taking pictures of!" They both
proudly replied BLUEBIRDS!!!!! Well I had seen a pair of Eastern Bluebirds
just down the road but I was really more impressed with the dozens of Tree
Swallows sailing around. Anyway as I stood there two male Tree Swallows
began fighting over which bird was going to enter the nestbox while a female
swallow was sitting there on the nestbox roof....

I was amazed at the brilliant colors of these male birds fighting in the
soft morning sunlight. Both camera's began ripping off frames as their motor
drives sucked a whole roll of film through them in just seconds. At the push
of a button the camera's screamed as they rewound the film and both
cameramen pitched the spent roll of slides on a small pile of other exposed
rolls near their camera bags. Within seconds they reloaded and shot another
whole roll of film.

As they reloaded the third roll in less than a minute they watched the
swallows fly off towards a nearby lake....I was in AWE and said WOW pretty
neat to be able to shoot those Tree Swallows and bluebirds at the same box.
I caught this incredulous look pass between these two guys and they turned
and gave me that condescending look and flatly stated that those birds are
BLUEBIRDS, did YOU not see how bright blue their backs were? I gave them a
REALLY dumb look back and said that the blue backed ones were male tree
swallows and the black backed one was the female.....They smiled and thanked
me for this information.....

As I turned away I heard something about "ignorant people" escape from the
lips of one of them as another roll of film was being ripped off the new
rolls as the swallows sailed back once again to the nestbox.....This stopped
me in my tracks and I slowly turned and said, "Before you shoot up all of
your film there is a pretty little bird building a nest in that nestbox at
the other side of the parking lot. It has a bright blue back and it's breast
is a pretty orange color...."

At noon I returned to see two VERY happy photographers gathering up all
these rolls of film and carefully, lovingly packing up their camera's and
lens while just about 15 feet away the tree swallows were still busy
fighting over their chosen nestbox. They were completely satisfied with
their opinion of ignorant people, offering opinions and carrying around a
digital camera that did not cost as much as the film they had just
shot....:-))) It is nice when everyone goes home happy! KK

From: Snoopy [mailto:snoopy"at"wmis.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: Indigo Bunting

I have [indigo buntings] here occasionally..... they will eat at your finch feeders if you put out nyger seed.

From: Autumn L. Kruer [mailto:autumnk"at"iglou.com]
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 1:21 AM
To: BLUEBIRD-L"at"cornell.edu
Subject: RE: Indigo Bunting

I used to have an indigo bunting that hung around in some tall weeds behind my house for years (this is when I lived in an old farmhouse which has since been torn down and we built a new house right in front of where the old one was). I don’t know if it was that weedy area or what, but now that the old house is gone and that area mowed, I haven’t seen the indigo bunting since. When I first saw it, I thought it was a bluebird (at that time not knowing the difference), but they’re smaller and don’t have the orange and white belly. They are truly beautiful birds.

Autumn in Kentucky

From: Snoopy [mailto:snoopy"at"wmis.net]
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: Indigo Bunting

could there have been alfalfa in that weed field and the indigo bunting eating the seeds from it??
I'm not really sure if they eat those or not, but now that you said that, it got me thinking........ we use to have TONS of it growing behind here, and now it is all changed..... sold and now made into a subdevelopment full of houses and I haven't seen my buntings since last summer when there was still lots of Alfalfa back there.

From: Tina Wertz [mailto:tinawertz"at"bellsouth.net]
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 9:43 AM
Subject: RE: Indigo Bunting

Joy
It's just that Indigo Buntings love open fields with scattered small trees, bushes or shrubs. The fact that the field was planted in Alfalfa was just a plus for them as it also provided a food source. Where I see a lot of buntings is on old farmlands or power lines where there is some over grown shrubs and bushes. There really do not like mature trees or forests that form a closed canopy which doesn't allow a rich understory of bushes and shrubs. I was lucky to have 13 bunting visit my feeders before they headed off to open country to begin breeding.

Tina Wertz

FROM: Pam Forsyth
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2005
RE: Indigo Bunting

Hi, Trish, I identified my first Indigo Bunting this morning. I had seen him a week ago in the same location in my back yard and couldn't differentiate him from the EABL who nests next door because I couldn't see the breast clearly nor estimate his size. But today I got a really good look at him. I hope to see more of him this summer. They are smaller than the EABL, and the color of the EABL is a more "purple-y" blue.

... Pamela Forsyth
Prince William County, VA, just south of MaNassas

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