Hmmm, i see, especially with the beak depth. But don’t juvie Laz have pink bills? Bill looks proportionally bigger than any Laz I have seen but baby birds do tend to have those big ol beaks when they’re young. Also, i have not seen many baby Laz buntings. I also thought Laz bunting juvies were streakier, not that it’s easy to tell from this photo. I saved it and brightened it up quite a bit and didn’t see much for streaking on the underparts.
What about a fledgling Lazuli Bunting? I’m not entirely convinced by the beak size/depth and it looks pretty similar to young Laz I’ve seen ???
Jay
It was close to the creek, which currently has very little water, but has dense aspens, chokecherry, and hawthorn trees. Around that is mostly sagebrush and juniper, with a few Douglas firs on the hillsides. Didn’t see any adults. This one appeared as I was pishing.
I plan to go back Wednesday or Thursday evening to look again. Others are welcome to join me–I am a slow hiker (I stop for lots of pictures), and it’s only about 3/4 mile up the trail.
Eric
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Eric Rude
Teacher: Forensic Science, Dual Credit Biology
Pocatello High School
Pocatello, Idaho
Looks pretty good honestly. I am pretty sure Black-headed Grosbeak fledglings in this stage would have some of the patterns typical of immatures that are not visible in this photo. What was the habitat like where you observed the bird? Any adult grosbeaks anywhere?
Cool sighting,
Austin
Seems possible. I couldn’t find any images of a fledgling blue grosbeak, but your photo shows what seems to be the right shape to body, head and bill and promising looking wing bars.
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Yesterday evening (7/11/22, 7:30 pm), I got a picture of what I believe is a juvenile Blue Grosbeak about 1 mile up the Kinney Creek Trail near Pocatello. Couldn’t find it again this morning, but I will be trying one evening later this week.
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