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Metro NY Gardener

Help with bird ID in NYC?

last year

last modified: last year

Any ideas what this might be? (See photos, in Comment, below).

Not a Mockingbird... I know that much. I thought maybe Catbird, but then I think Catbirds typically have long tail feathers, similar to Mockingbird no? This bird didn't have long tail feathers. But very pretty soft shades of grey...

I also thought (from a distance, and based on size/shape and their bill) that it might be a Euro Starling, but then coloring is all off....unless it's a juvenile whose colors have yet to mature?

Sorry the photos aren't all that clear...I took them through my balcony door. It may be hard to tell, but the bird is larger than a sparrow...more along lines of a mockingbird or starling...at least, size-wise...

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Comments (3)

Lynn Nevins
Original Author
last year
Esther-B, Zone 7a
last year
Looks like a regular ol' starling. They are exceedingly abundant in NYC, I'd say #2 to (also imported) house sparrows and native pigeons.
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Both Claire and I are in New England. This post comment was why I thought the photo was of an eastern sparrow. Still, I live in California, and had this Harris's sparrow visited my yard. So they can wander; but Montana would be within normal range.I don't believe it is a Lincoln's sparrow. Their side/breast stripes are very narrow/thin, the chin is whitish and photo's white cheek marking tends to be buff in color on a Lincoln's.
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Lynn Nevins
Original Author
last year
So then why does it not have coloring of a starling? Must it be a juvenile?

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