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Please help me ID this black and orange bird

grammasdaisygirl

14 years ago

I am sorry to say that none of my pics turned out well enough to post.

I live in southeast Michigan in a densely populated suburb of Detroit. I spotted a sparrow sized, chickadee shaped little bird flitting about in my lilac which is near my thisle/niger feeder. At first I thought he was a chickadee (black cap), but then I noticed that he had bright orange on him, especially around his wings and not a lot of white. My mom saw him, too, and I asked if it was an oriole and she said no but she had no idea what it was either. He was cute as a button. He landed in the lilac as I was giving my mom a garden tour, so I thought he was brave like a chickadee. He stuck around while I got my camera and took a couple pics, but when I tried to get a couple steps closer, he fled. My yard is quite shaded by three 60 year old trees (I inherited the lilac planted in shade). I have recently noticed many new wetland habitat birds in my yard. I suspect it's due to my neighbor who hasn't opened her pool in years so that it has actually become a pond.

What are my choices of Michigan birds with this description?

I searched this site as well as many others and my best guess is American Redstart. Does this sound right?

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Comments (4)

rachel_frome_ky
14 years ago
Wow! These little guys are usually difficult to see, although several times last year they landed on the bank within feet of me while I was swimming laps in a pond back in the woods

Is this it?
From May 2009
grammasdaisygirl
Original Author
14 years ago
It could be but I'm not positive. I'll have to show this to my Mom. I kept describing him as having "orange armpits", so this pic would match in that respect. But the bird in your pic looks more sleek and less chubby than the bird in my yard. He had that well-rounded chickadee belly.

Do you know of any other small black, orange and white birds that might be in my area? I see that you're in KY!
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lisa11310
14 years ago
I am in West Michigan and I saw my first ever Redstart just this weekend. It does sound like your description. It did flit around and acted very "Dee like".
jsimran
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yes, the "flitting about" perfectly describes the activity of a redstart.

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