The Networked Bird Observatory Blog

Just before 3:30 p.m. yesterday, five photos were taken of a very interesting bird. The five photos are below; they were taken by (respectively) spurdin, kitcat, leacox, leacox, and spurdin.

There has been some really interesting discussion in the image comments. There’s also been this cute thing happening where people refrain from voting, giving a “no bird” vote instead, so they can see how other people are voting before committing themselves.

I know from a previous email correspondence with Bryce Lee (the main programmer for the “game” part of the system) that they were very concerned when designing it that people’s votes might be “tainted” by knowledge of how other people were voting. From that perspective, I’m guessing they’d view the “no bird” trick as more of a bug than a feature. But I don’t know; in terms of how we regulars are actually using the system (as distinct from how its designers imagined us using it), it’s a pretty handy technique, and might help us avoid the issue we’ve had from time to time where a pretty solid photo of a new bird ends up parked forever in “disputed” because people can’t change their votes after thinking a bird over for a while.

Of course, there’s no law that says you have to enter any vote at all before you’re ready. True, you’ll miss the chance to get your 1 or 2 points from an early ID, but at this point that doesn’t seem very significant, given how high the cumulative scores have become.

Anyway, let’s get on to the photos of the “mystery finch”:

Here’s a photo of a male House Finch for comparison purposes:

So, what is that guy? Let’s look at some different aspects of the question:

Redpoll? I know robin54 raised the possibility that this might be a Common Redpoll, and image #2, especially, seems pretty Redpoll-ish. But personally, I can’t go there. I don’t know Redpolls from personal experience, but going by Sibley, I’m not seeing the amount of heavy streaking I’d want to see on the flanks, and the facial markings, especially in photo #5 above, seem pretty clearly to exclude that ID. On top of that, it would be a very rare bird well outside its normal range. Yeah; I know birds fly around and rarities happen, but I’d need really, really strong evidence to accept that that’s what we’ve got here. I just don’t see it.

House Finch? At the same time, I really don’t think this is just a fluffed-up House Finch, as some have suggested. Three things lead me to say that:

1) The top of the head is higher, the general body shape is stockier, and the tail is shorter, than I’d expect in a House Finch. Yes, that could be the fluff factor (especially with respect to the head and body), but to me, that bird really looks like a Purple or Cassin’s, rather than a House.

2) There’s what looks like a pinkish wash on the back (see especially image #4).

3) The beak shape (what you can see of it) seems straighter and more pointy than a House Finch (see especially images #1, 2, and 5).

So, that leaves me with a choice between Purple and Cassin’s. And there I’m really torn. Just going on what we can see here, I’d be inclined to say Cassin’s. The length and straightness of the beak, the relatively small amount of color on the back, the brownish back of the head, and the “rosy” red (as distinct from the “wine” red of Purple, or the “brick” red of House) all argue for Cassin’s (at least, judging by the illustrations and comments in Sibley, who I’m relying on pretty heavily here, since I don’t have a lot of personal experience with Cassin’s, or even with Purple, which I confess I tend to ID more by voice than appearance).

But (again, per Sibley) Cassin’s would be out of its range, which Sibley shows as being limited to the mountains. Not very far out of its range, and for all I know a Cassin’s in San Francisco isn’t such a rarity (do we have any Bay Area locals who can chime in on that?) But (again) to ID a bird outside its range (and one that would be new to the game), I’d want to have some pretty strong evidence. Do these images rise to that level?

The images themselves look more like Cassin’s to me. But I think a Purple is more likely to be there, and the two factors pretty much balance each other out.

I think I’m going to have to think about it some more.

I’m interested in any comments anyone else wants to add. And congratulations to spurdin, kitcat, and leacox on getting some great images of a great (if mysterious) bird.

Update: I went ahead and called it a Purple Finch. I just really don’t think it’s a House Finch, but I also really don’t think it’s a clear enough case to call it an out-of-its-range Cassin’s Finch. So I ended up with Purple Finch almost by default, even though (as I acknowledge above) I think it looks more like a Cassin’s than a Purple. Now that I’ve entered an ID, I can see that most of the others who have voted went with House Finch, which I can live with, too. Maybe a really fluffed-up bird fresh out of the birdbath? I guess I’ll never really know.

Later update: The five photos are currently classified as follows, as far as the game is concerned:

1. House Finch (CF-0, HF-3, PF-1)
2. Purple Finch (CF-1, HF-1, PF-4)
3. House Finch (CF-0, HF-3, PF-1)
4. House Finch (CF-0, HF-3, PF-1)
5. House Finch (CF-0, HF-2, PF-1)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 10:08 am and is filed under Favorite Shots, Records and Rarities, The Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.