"I ahve to say you ladies are REALLY good, maybe we should skip to the first fall warblers???? " Ladies, we are in trouble. Check your Peterson guide on confusing fall warblers to bone up for the challenge! Actually the guide is pretty good by putting them in sub-sections by field marks and color. You can then proceed by process of elimination until you get down to the correct bird. Then check the Cornell's site for other photographs for further positive ID markers. Local variations and light in the photos make if tougher too but if you find most of key ID points it is probably that bird. According to my SMAS group the Blue Jay is considered partially leucistic, not albino, and is exhibiting other feather abnormalities related to genetics. In another communication, Arlene Ripley commented that she has seen many albino birds but none have exhibited the fur-like structures of this Jay's feathers. I did some of my own research on fur-like feathers and every site pointed to something called proto-feathers which were exhibited by some early dinosaurs before true feathers emerged. It's exciting to imagine this bird may be exhibiting an ancient genetic throwback to prehistoric times which upholds the common belief that birds evolved from dinosaurs as they first took flight. There has been a call to ask everyone on the local site if there is a scientic name for this feather anomaly and this call comes from a man that works for the Smithsonian Institute and really knows birds. So far, no reponse, so the local bird community here may be stumped. There was sentiment regarding hope the bird survives. Jean, has this bird been a regular at your feeder for any length of time in which one could make the assumption it has survived nature with this variance? Arlene suggested the photo be posted on websites dedicated to leucistic and albino birds and see if more information could be obtained from readers. PapaSmurf is a rare Blue Jay indeed. CT

ugogran, close guess on the tanager. The bill of a tanager is more conical and a bit shorter whereas the warbler has a thinner all-purpose. You can also see the start of the chestnut colored streaking on the breast that the tanager doesn't have. The eye-ring is still present so it's either young, or female. Females don't have the breast streaking so it's a first year male. Another easy way to tell the difference in a lot of birds, and something often overlooked, is the color of the legs. My father is an ornithologist and he taught me as a little kid to always look at the legs! Tanagers have grey legs whereas the yellow warbler has pink to light olive legs. Either one is quite welcome in our little corner of the planet :) Grackles...ugh. Right now we have a boatload of immatures hanging around all the water features. They love to pull on any nearby plant and it drive me bonkers. But hey, at least they aren't starlings.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Great-crested Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and female Scarlet Tanager...don't know of too many species that have that greenish body and dark wings. BN

Looks very much like a Scarlet Tanager.