Just when I want the camera to work perfectly, it doesn't focus sharply, which is probably my own fault for being in too big a hurry. I was afraid this might fly away before I got a picture. The second one shows it compared to a crow nearby. It's about the size of a gull, but has a different shaped head and beak, and gulls don't usually land on power lines. It is probably a juvenile, because the back and wings have gray speckled patterns like some young birds have. My bird book doesn't have a picture of it. It is somewhat similar to a Ross's Gull, but it doesn't have a gull's shape, and gulls don't sit on wires usually. Whatever it is, the crow doesn't seem to feel threatened, and both seem comfortable there. If anyone knows what kind of bird this is, please leave a comment below.
It looks like George to me. How's that sound for a name? :-)
ReplyDeleteRay it's a albino turd bird.
ReplyDeleteGee, Guys -
ReplyDeleteI'm sure glad you didn't try to tell me it's a Gufflebird that eats red peppers and flies backward to keep its bum cool, or that it's one of those Ew-Ew Birds whose family jewels hang down lower than its short little legs, so it cries EW! EW! Ew! every time it lands.....
Ray...
ReplyDeleteI think if you look real hard...You will see a tag on its belly that says...Made in China
Honest Ray...I've worn out my key pad looking for that darn bird...It must be a mirage or something...At first I thought it was a pigeon...Now I don't know...Maybe it will come back if you wave some of your cheese bread out the window...
Hooray...
ReplyDeleteThat's HOORAY...Not Hoo Ray...
(I just feel a little goofy today)
Anyway...I e-mailed you my conclusion as to your present
delima..."What kind of bird is it?"
It's a Glaucous-winged Gull!!!
Hooooooooooo...ray!!!
@ Uncle Ron -
ReplyDeleteI thought it might be a gull too, and
it could be, but the Glaucous-winged
one has an orange/yellow beak with
a downward curve near the point of it and this bird had a slightly shorter straight and black beak with no "hook" at the tip of it.
So I'm afraid we still don't know!
But thanks for trying to find out.
Au Contrare mon ami...
ReplyDeleteIf you look at this web site on birds of San Francisco you will see a wet juvenile gull which has a black stright beak and looks nothing like an adult...
http://www.citybirds.com/CityBirdsBlog/BirdsOfSF/
@ Uncle Ron -
ReplyDeleteI stand (or sit) corrected! You're absolutely right - that's the bird I saw here, and forgive me for doubting you.
Now, all I need to know is how it mastered the art of sitting on a power line, when its grown-up relatives can't do that. They sometimes fly near one and look like they'd like to land, but at the last moment, they change their minds. Maybe as they mature, their feet aren't as flexible.
Thanks for going to all that trouble to identify the bird, Ron.
If my pictures had turned out better, we could see that there's quite a nice almost geometric pattern to the coloration on its back.