What's going on, Albuquerque?

Two unidentified birds seen Feb 17, 2013

Last Sunday was certainly nice compared to this Sunday (the 24th). I went out for a walk on the 17th and saw this bird high in a tree. I thought it was a sparrow but as I wasn't sure I'd see much, I took two pictures of it anyhow, then later realized it wasn't a sparrow... the tail is finch like but a bit wider, the gray head reminds me of a Kingbird (but they're summer visitors). Probably a seed eater... any ideas?

Then later on my walk, north of the golf course (which is, um, east of Tingley Beach sort of), I saw this bird on the chainlink fence and was able to approach and get a lot of pictures of it. It was smaller than a robin but larger than a sparrow. It did not sing (the area was overwhelmed by bushtit song; I'll probably post pictures of them later)

It was quite a pretty little bird. I also saw Sandhill Cranes overhead, but maybe they knew that Albuquerque would be getting the least part of the coming storm and they wanted to get out of Socorro and spend some time at Tingley Beach.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bosque Bill on February 24, 2013 at 11:39am

Those first two images are a Dark-eyed Junco, probably the Slate-colored variety, though we can only see the lower portions. It's kind of unusual not to see black lores, though. We also have Oregon, Pink-sided and Gray-headed in this area. They're here in winter or in the mountains year around.

The second bird is a Say's Phoebe, which is a type of fly catcher and fairly common.

Permalink Reply by Debby S on February 25, 2013 at 5:43am

Thank you for those identifications! I didn't think Junco because it was so high up. Before this, the only "high" junco (a pink-sided) was a top a wall, about 6 feet. Also, I usually see them in shady areas on the ground. Maybe this one was way up there just enjoying the sunshine.

A Say's Phoebe! it did rather remind me of a Wood-Peewee (I'll have to post another batch of pictures here), but the W-Ps are, I think, more summer birds, being fly catchers, too... but then the SP being a fly catcher... yet flies and bees show up whenever it warms up enough, so the bugs are fair game, I guess...

I'll keep watching for them both. Next weekend is supposed to bring us great weather!

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