Zeke …. You could very well be correct … fat head and stubby bill and some appear to have a lighter crown and lighter under the wing than I would expect with a Blackbird flock. On the Rosy-finches I shot in flight in 2019 in better light I see the wing bars that could be mistaken for red-winged epaulets in the darker images.
The lighting and exposure on Alan’s images could be making them look darker/blacker than they are.
Louisa and most others on IBLE are far more experienced birders than I am and I am not a Gray-crowned and Black Rosy-finch expert at all.
What makes you think Black Rosy-finch and not Gray-crowned or a mixed flock? It is hard for me to see all the ID marks I read about for them from the dark photos. The only Black Rosy-finches that I had photographed before the ones below were sitting not flying and I had to get some of the IBO biologists to help me sort out the Black from the Gray-crowned. And of course there are plummage variations in adults and with immature birds … just to drive me nuts 🙂
Here is a large, what I Id’d as a mixed flock, with more Gray-crowned than Black. I photographed these in better light on 11-7-2019 near Succor Creek in Oregon and near the Idaho Border.
On Jan 8, 2021, at 10:26 PM, scottywarbler via groups.io <scottywarbler@…> wrote:
These are Rosy-finches not blackbirds. Looks like Black Rosy-finch. Note that those are not epaulets but wingbars. Also “fat-headed and stubby billed. Rosy’s move down out of the high country above timberline in large flocks like this in the winter.Zeke Watkins208-731-1471Instagram : @idahobirderNot all those who wander are lost – J.R.R. TolkienWithout the animals, Man would die of a great loneliness of the Spirit – Chief SeattleAn understanding of the natural world and what’s in it is a source of not only great curiosity but great fulfillment – Sir David AttenboroughOn Jan 8, 2021, at 7:36 PM, Ken Miracle via groups.io <chukar28@…> wrote:
I just opened the images up on my 27 inch iMac and expanded zoomed in even closer. It appears to me that I can see the epaulets or Red-winged Blackbirds.On Jan 8, 2021, at 7:07 PM, Louisa Evers <elouisa603@…> wrote:
Looks like at least some of them are red-winged blackbirds. Could be a mixed flock of several species of blackbirds. In the second photo, I think I’m seeing the red epaulets on some of the birds.On Fri, Jan 8, 2021 at 18:48 M Gregory <alanclarkg@…> wrote:Anyone have an idea of what species these birds are? I photographed the flock over sage flats a mile or so from Old Highway 30 in Elmore County this afternoon. When I think of songbirds flocking in winter, I think of House Sparrows. No human activity in this area. Just sagebrushAlan in Mountain Home—
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Louisa EversKen Miracle
chukar28@…
208-570-2780
“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” 2COR 3:5
Ken Miracle
chukar28@…
208-570-2780
“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” 2COR 3:5
chukar28@…
208-570-2780
“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” 2COR 3:5