Mystery Bird: Townsend's Solitaire, Myadestes townsendi

Townsend's Solitaire, catbird-like but no black cap, more or less all grey, lighter on the bottom, light & darker patches on edge of wing.

...but it's the wrong range and I missed the notched tail.

Looks like Townsend's Solitaire. Thrush-like in shape, overall nondescript, white eye-ring, slight evidence of some buff on the wing (I think).

An idea: Why not have a mystery quiz on bird songs/calls? Link to an mp3 call and see if folks can identify the bird based on its song alone. You wouldn't need to do it every day, but just once in a while (weekly, monthly, randomly)? I love the visual mystery bird feature...it is a fun way to hone my skills, and learn new birds. Doing a song recognition would also be educational especially if the answer would include a "handle" or "field mark" that identifies this particular bird (e.g. the "mrrweow" of the catbird).

Dark-sided flycatcher: white eye-ring, notched tail.

good idea, daniel. you've given me an idea .. i'll see if i can get a collaborator with birdsong files to work with me. it's certainly challenging for me to get these images, but i have a little idea for sound files that, if it works, i'll be excited to tell everyone about. of course, if you have any suggestions of who might be interested to work with me on this, i'd be thrilled about that, too.

If you wanted me to look into it, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology might be able to help with this. We've got oodles of sounds in our archives at the Macaulay Library (link above), so it would mainly be a matter of sorting out permissions and logistics. E-mail me if you like... Hugh

GrrlScientist...I just sent you an email to your feedback link from my Yahoo.ca account. -dan

There's an app for iPhone which I use called iBird that has birdsongs from over 800 species. It's pretty cool. I use the version called iBird Plus.
SH

If this is a Townsend's solitaire, why does it have a notched tail?

We have one (Solitaire Townsend) that hangs out by all of our windows flying lightly into the windows. Including the windows on our car. I cannot figure out if it is trying to get in, feeding on insects, or going after its own reflection. It is not hurting itself, so I just leave it alone after first attempting to shoo it away from the windows. Anyone else observe this behavior?

It is a really sweet bird though, and has a beautiful song book.