tags: Orange Bishop, Grenadier Weaver, Orange Weaver, Euplectes franciscana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Orange Bishop, also known as the Orange Weaver or sometimes as the Grenadier Weaver, Euplectes franciscana, photographed at Arthur Storey Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 26 September 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
This species is monochromatic during the nonbreeding season, and the male becomes dramatically colored in black and brilliant orange during the breeding season. These birds are introduced into the United States.
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Oh fiddle dee dee. Sparrows... been working on learning these better all week. I always love to start with behavior, flocking along with non-streaky, suggests Spizella sparrows...Chipping, Field, Clay-colored, Brewers or American Tree. The lack of the spot and the head patterns rule out the Tree and Field Sparrows...Brewers is more western with a really small beak ... The distinct summer plumage of the Chipping sparrow certainly is not present, but in late September it will look similar to the Clay-colored. The dark eye-line does not extend to the bill (lores appear pale), breast cleaner overall and rump brown v. gray, so I'm leaning to Clay-Colored.
not even close, ruthie! the bill should give you an important clue .. and the plumage pattern, well, if you've knowingly seen this species before, you'll be able to ID it ..
Let's see ...
First, I like the approach, Ruthie, although with photos behavior is always iffy. In this case, it caused you to miss an important detail or two. With sparrows, a good place to start is the tail and body structure -- Spizellas are small birds with relatively long tails. These birds clearly have quite short tails. They also look fairly flat-headed, which helps as well.
The short, slightly forked tail is typical of Savannah Sparrow (but they would be very streaky below) and Ammodramus sparrows. Melospiza and Aimophila sparrows are longer-tailed, and Amphispizas are all more boldly marked. (They're also all found farther west).
So, Ammodramus. Nelson's and Saltmarsh sparrows would both have bold orange and gray faces, as well as streaks below. LeConte's would have a much brighter face, and a contrasty back as well. Seaside Sparrow would be much darker, with heavy streaking below. Henslow's Sparrow would be even larger-billed, with an olive color and distinct markings on the head and a streaked breast. The only thing left is Grasshopper Sparrow, which has a fairly flat head and large pink bill, and a very plain pale face, which fits these birds.
So, my call is Grasshopper Sparrow.
Another caution with regards to this ID. Field guides seem to put a lot of stress on breast spots for ID'ing sparrows. Understandable, I guess, it seems like a nice discrete field mark, unlike most of the stuff on sparrows. Trouble is, sometimes birds that should have one don't, and sometimes birds that don't have one appear to. (Check out the bottom bird, and the one two birds left of it.) Every year, American Tree Sparrows apparently missing breast spots are reported to CBC compilers as Chipping Sparrows based on this one field mark, even though a winter Chipping Sparrow actually looks much different. A much better mark for Am. Tree Sparrow is the bicolored bill -- dark above and yellowish below.
something tells me that you are all going to hate me in a couple days .. this is a VERY tricky group of birds to ID! no, seriously. VERY TRICKY. so i'll give you one very important clue: this is NOT an emberizid.
aha! NOW it's time for my "escaped from captivity" ace! These look like Orange Bishop Weavers, Euplectes franciscanus, a dichromatic species so therefore out of their "nuptial" color phase when they look like juveniles or females- they do indeed look like Grashoppers psweet, but the bill appears to be a little too heavy...
http://www.biolib.cz/en/image/id40198/
and now I am sure after I keyed in on the species... apparently a flock of about 25-30 were spotted along with a flock of Nutmeg Mannikin (Longchura punctulata) in Houston in 2004 and posted on the Texbirds listserv
[Ted Eubanks, Robert A. Behrstock, Ron J. Weeks (2006) Birdlife of Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast]
And interestingly, look what I found!:
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/12/peterson_field_guide_to_the_bi.php
Nah, in a couple of days, I'll have lost this page, and because you no longer update your list of "mystery birds to date," I won't see the answer. ;-)
At risk of thread hijack, have you seen this zoologist getting abused by a rare New Zealand parrot?
David, from "The Last Chance to See" series...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFnNc8Qzjg&feature=player_embedded
David, from The Last Chance to See series.
[just experimenting with the href attribute tags!]
Oh, well, can't win 'em all, I guess. Never having seen the species, and only going by the Nat.Geo. illustration, I thought that Orange Bishop would have a shorter tail and a buffier underside, although that last could easily be a seasonal issue. On the other hand, the fact that the streaking on the back seems so uniform does fit Bishop better. I tried to get a good look at the scapulars, but I just wasn't sure if the image was large enough to feel confident.