Mystery Bird: Sedge Wren, Cistothorus platensis

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[Mystery bird] Sedge Wren, formerly known as the Short-billed Marsh Wren, Cistothorus platensis, photographed at Attwater Prairie Chicken Refuge, Eagle Lake, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 November 2009 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

If you can ID this species, can you also tell me what its former common name was and how it came by its new common name?

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

Review all mystery birds to date.

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Unstreaked buff breast. Grey-brown rump. White eye ring. Pink legs and feet.

Thoreau said in "Autumnal Tints" that the loose-strife shall bloom and this bird shall sing over your bones.

(So, how'd I do? I'm a beginner still, but this looks like the first post...)

By Another Kevin (not verified) on 26 Apr 2010 #permalink

I'm not too good with little brown passerines--at this angle the bill looks narrow, but it's hard to gauge its length. In honor of Hai-Ren, I'll allude to the footballer who left Manchester United for Middlesbrough in 1998.

ID: Bird.
Former common name: Bird.
New common name: Bird.
It got its new common name because it's not a brick.

This bird has buffy flanks, barring on the wing coverts, and appears to have yellow on the lower mandible. It used to have a different common name before 1983.