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What did I see in West Chester PA?

14 years ago

I live in West Chester PA. I have a somewhat extensive garden & trees & I have several feeders in my back yard. I was looking at my large sunflower-heart feeder last night & saw a pair of birds the like of which I've never seen before. They were black & white. Not a wood pecker or a sparrow. Larger than a sparrow. W/ the black head the 1st thing I thought was junco but there were larger than the juncos I see here in the winter. Black head, top & upper 1/2 of body. White underbody & lower 1/2. Black & white mixed on wings and side. Had a short sturdy seed eating bill. They definiatly were traveling as a pair. They revisisted this morning. I'll try to get a pick if they come back. I looked on line & the only thing I could find that was close was a towhee.

Any ideas? Like I said they must be very rare here as I'm very observant & have never seen a bird like this here or anywhere.

Thanks for any ideas!

JD

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Comments (8)

jjdbike
Original Author
14 years ago
So I did a seach on black & white birds & only came up w/2. Black & white worbler & again the towhee which seems to have a good bit of red on it which I didn't see. Although the black & white worbler seems to be smaller and have smaller bits of black & white mixed than the birds I saw. Any help guys? What to do think I saw?
Thanks!
JD
creeper
14 years ago
Black and white warbler is much smaller than Towhee. In fact bkack and white warbler is not any bigger than Junco and from your description" Black head", I don't think this is B&W warbler. But what was it?
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creeper
14 years ago
How about an eastern kingbird ?

Here is a link that might be useful:
jjdbike
Original Author
14 years ago
Definatly not a king bird. They eat bugs not seeds I believe. Not a worbler or a towhee either. The black & white guys are back. I've tried to get pics but they are blury and too far away. They are spooky and take off when ever I try to approach.
They are the size of a cardinal. They don't get along w/ the cardnials either. The cardnials chase them away from the feeder. I find this strange as they feed peafully w/ the finchs etc. The beak is light tan or yellow & very sturdy, as if it were made to crack nuts open. The towhee's beak is black.
I'm stumped. Haven't seen a pic of a bird that looks anything like it yet. There are two of them so its not some strange color mutation.
Any ideas?
feather_z9_ncacoast
14 years ago
what about a Downy Woodpecker?
jjdbike
Original Author
14 years ago
Nope. Not a woodpecker. Although I do have some of them that like my suit, peanut nuggets and sunflower hearts. Those sunflower hearts attract everything.I'm getting so frustrated about identifying those black & white birds. My OCD is drivin me crazy. I'm thinking I'm going back to one of my original guesses, Towhee. Right size, shape, beak & color (with out the red). I got a couple pics & I'll try to load them.
Thanks for the help folks.
JD
dzyg
14 years ago
Would love to see the pics, only thing that comes to mind for me is the Rosebreasted Grosbeak but they have red on the chest too.

Donna
jjdbike
Original Author
14 years ago
Donna
A friend felt my pain, or perhaps he wanted to shut me up, and found me an "Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding. Confirmed it last night, you're dead on! They are rose breasted grosbeaks!The male has a pronounced red chest, the female not so much. They've been around here for three or four days now frequenting my sunflower heart feeder. Haven't seen them this mornng though so I fear they got sick of my dogs. Never seen anything like them. They are real striking beauties!
Thanks for the help & way to go w/ the identification Donna.
JD

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