[mou] Update: Dodge Co. Mystery bird

[Ken or Rebecca Vail]

Thanks to all who responded to my call for ID help on an unknown bird in my yard.  The consensus seems to be an aberrant juvenile E. Towhee.  Most of the field marks (size, bill, color, white wing patch and its feeding behavior) fit a towhee.  The one field mark that led to my plea for help was the extensive white on the tail.  I realize towhees are supposed to have white on the tail near the terminal corners but this bird's tail literally looked like an elongated junco tail with the white lateral borders running the entire length of the tail; it was very distinctive.

The bird has not returned so far today so that I might obtain more photos.  One of the photos (the only one submitted that was within the size limitations; my fault) taken by my wife, Rebecca, has kindly been posted by David Cahlander at the URL below.  Unfortunately this head-on view omits many of the field marks and could be interpreted to be several species.   Hopefully the film photos I took will provide some better views.  As I get other photos I will post them on the MOU website.

 http://moumn.org/cgi-bin/recent.pl?op=showcase

Thank you,

Ken Vail
Blooming Prairie
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