I did find a few images of Western Scrub-Jay that made the idea seem at least plausible to me. But I didn't find any images that were close enough to make me think it was more likely than not a western scrub jay.
Anyway, my guess right now is that it isn't a cowbird, or a jay or a brewer's blackbird.
I think it is a juvenile Scrub-jay. The bill looks very Corvidae to me, as do the feet. I looked in my Helm guide for Crows and Jays, and the juvenile Florida Scrub-Jay (1), and the pattern of which feathers have grown blue seems to fit. I saw some Brewer's in Bellington (see below) and they all seemed to have yellow or white eyes, so that wouldn't fit.
I have about 15 photos of birds that I took while in Spain and Portugal last month. I don't want to post all of them in the thread if that will slow down the site. I started a flickr account, but I'm not entirely sure what the best way for members to view them. Any ideas would be helpful.
Send them to EHocking or me, and we'll work it out somehow.
My trip to Spain was not very successful birdwise, but I did get to see some cool species, very few of which I was able to ID.
Feel free to ask any questions if you remember details. Several of us here have experience with Mediterranean birds (I don't, though), and we have the proper literature to find out what experience hasn't taught us^^.
The most surprising bird was the Northern Flicker that we saw in Bode. This is listed as a local species for Orange County where I live but I had never seen one. It is a striking bird. It seemed to something of an awkward flyer but it is quite strikingly marked. I was surprised to find out it was related to woodpeckers, but with hindsight I can see the similarities.
I was looking for this bird EVERYWHERE in Vancouver, as my hosts said that it is really common, and can be see in any park or even in gardens where there are ants. Never saw a single one, until one day we were out catching birds on a mudflat, and
there came a Flicker flying across the pastures, making a large circle when it saw the sea, and flew back again and disappeared from sight behind a house. Didn't get to see it well, but Miss_Kitt's house made up for that, when one came sitting on a tree just behind her garden and allowed itself to be observed for some time. Beautiful birds. I can't understand why the Americas got all the really spectacular woodpeckers...
Throughout the Sierras we constantly heard a very loud, very tiny bird. I never figured out what it was and I didn't get any pictures that were good enough of it to give me much of a chance of figuring it out. House wren seems like the best possibility.
I can't link directly to the page, but
www.mangoverde.com -> World Bird Guide -> Passerines -> Wrens have a large collection of House Wren sounds from across the world. Indeed, it has quite a lot of sounds from other wrens as well, in case that's not the species you heard.
Oregon juncos;
goldfinches (lots, including the Giant Sphere Bird, who is about 150% normal size)*
purple finches;
chickadees;
rufous towhees;
flickers;
red breasted robins;
barn swallows;
house sparrows;
crowned sparrows;
nuthatches;
downy woodpeckers (cute!);
hairy woodpeckers;
stellar's jays;
flickers;
killdeer;
pigeons;
alas, starlings.
You forgot the zorse^^.
Also, now that you've found the thread, please come back (2).
Kotatsu: Miss_Kitt mentioned to me in passing that you might like
this picture and that I could probably get it to you here.
This was on my deck tonight, not two hours ago
.
I envy you... All I saw was a group of six running away at a distance...
Finally, here are the bird species I saw in Washington State, US, during my brief visit. They are really divided between Bellingham, Bay View and Renton, but as there's quite a lot that was seen from the highway and so on, and I was a bit careless with my notes, I have lumped them all together under "Washington":
5/8 Washington
American Goldfinch
Carduelis tristis
Barn Swallow
Hirundo rustica
Savannah Sparrow
Passerculus sandwichensis
Starling
Sturnus vulgaris
Steller's Jay
Cyanocitta stelleri
Wren
Troglodytes troglodytes
Red-tailed Hawk
Buteo jamaicensis
Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapilla
Killdeer
Charadrius vociferus
Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
House Sparrow
Passer domesticus
Bald Eagle
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Mourning Dove
Zenaida macroura
Brewer's Blackbird
Euphagus cyanocephalus
6/8
Golden Flicker
Colaptes auratus
North-Western Crow
Corvus caurinus
Black-headed Grosbeak
Pheucticus melanocephalus
Purple Finch
Carpodacus purpureus
Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis
Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius phoenicues
Spotted Towhee
Pipilo maculatus
Anna's Hummingbird
Calypte anna (3)
Canada Goose
Branta canadensis
Domestic Pigeon
Columba livia domestica
Song Sparrow
Melospiza melodia
The last few days in Vancouver gave no new birds. Still, I think I reached about 100 species, which isn't all that bad. As soon as I have the photos worked out, I'll start posting them here, as well as the remainder of the Australia/Japan/Thailand ones.
---
(1) No picture of juvenile Western Scrub-Jay, and the book does not split the species anyway.
(2) And, again, thank you for having me over!
(3) This, according to my field guide, is way North of its usual range, but the birds we saw -- and these are supposedly regulars at Miss_Kitt's bird feeder -- doesn't fit in with anything else, really. Perhaps a very local population?
