Bird ID?

15 years ago

This bird came to my feeder and I'd never seen anything like it before. To me, it looks kind of like a jay, but it's definitely does not look like one of our local scrub-jays.

Here is a link that might be useful: Birds Album

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (10)

linda_tx8
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, yes...I'm talking about the last three pics, of that dark bird.
bandjzmom
15 years ago
Is it a Magpie?
Related Discussions
Bird ID
Q
Comments (4)
BINGO!! We just found it in the bird book. I'd never heard of it before. How did you find it so fast? https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown_Creeper/id
...See More
Mutilated bird I.D. please....would a owl do this?
Q
Comments (6)
Its a duck, a green wing teal I believe. Birds have a number of predators, small and medium mammals, other birds, reptiles. Could be a hawk or owl, or a cat or fox or raccoon. Squirrels even will raid nests I believe.
...See More
Baby bird ID New York
Q
Comments (0)
Would like ID of baby bird downstate NY
...See More
Bird ID with no pic
Q
Comments (4)
third clip... thats it ... https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray_Catbird/sounds# good job babs.. who needs birders.. when i got a babs .. lol ... and there sure are enough cats around.. so go figure on that .. lol .. i have an old 3 gal dog water bowl on the deck ... for the feral cats.. and birds in the heat of summer ... so i get all kinds of interesting fauna out the kitchen window ... you should hear the old cat on the inside of the sliding door.. bitchin at the birds.. i dont even know how to explain that noise.. lol .. ken
...See More
User
15 years ago
The beak looks like a crow or crow family ... I think the white tuft is just a small patch of white. Magpies have much more white on them.

Maybe a northern variety Brown Jay?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Jay
linda_tx8
Original Author
15 years ago
Hmmm. Wish I'd gotten a better look at it or more pics. Definitely not a bird that usually comes here. The Black-billed Magpie in my book...well, I don't remember any slashes of white on the side of the bird. Although, the bird DID seem to have some very slight blue tinges on the body feathers. The Brown Jay, that's a possibility, but then why would it have blue tinges? I'm just confused about this mysterious bird! Hope it comes back!
creeper
15 years ago
The bill structure and birdÃ¯Â¿Â½s size/shape tells me this is a Jay. For some reason itÃ¯Â¿Â½s a very dark Jay but if you look closely you can see blue tail and wing streaks. Definitely Jay.
linda_tx8
Original Author
15 years ago
Jay is what I thought when I saw it, but how strange to see a jay that's just about black. We always have the scrub-jays here, blue with grayish and whitish parts. It's a bit bigger than those. Maybe it IS a Brown Jay...that does go to the Valley in Texas...could get up here to southcentral Texas.
orrin_h
15 years ago
Perhaps a melanistic Scrub Jay?

-O-
birding_nut
15 years ago
I think this is some form of a Scrub-jay, in the last pic you can faintly see the necklace of streaks on the breast. This could be a juvenile bird which are darker overall and grayer than normal adult birds. A Brown Jay would be 5 inches bigger than a Scrub Jay and would have no hints of blue at all.

BN
alan_la
15 years ago
I'm going with Scrub Jay that has a pigment problem.
linda_tx8
Original Author
15 years ago
So, maybe some kind of genetic abnormality then? I've seen tons of juvenile scrub-jays here over the years and none ever looked really dark. Well, anyway, it certainly was exciting to see a bird that unusual looking! I wonder...if that one mated with one of the local scrub-jays, what the offspring would look like.