I had overlooked this, but rafa alerted me to it in email. Check out this very interesting shot taken by breffni yesterday at 8:48 a.m.:
That’s a male Red-winged Blackbird in the middle of the shot, but what is that bird in the lower left? In the comments on the shot, idbirds asserts that it isn’t a Northern Mockingbird because of the length of the tail, and suggests it could be a juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
Personally, I think either bird is possible. That tail doesn’t necessarily look longer than a mockingbird’s to me. The end of the tail also doesn’t look much like what Sibley shows for the juvenile Scissor-tailed (a bird I don’t know from personal experience, so I’m kind of dependent on field guides). The Sibley illustration seems to show that the tail of the juvenile flycatcher is distinctly notched; this shot seems to be right in the middle between the squared-off tail tip of a mockingbird and the notched tip of the flycatcher.
I’m curious what others think. Is this a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher? Or a Northern Mockingbird? I’m pretty sure it’s one or the other, but I’m really up in the air as to which one.
Thanks to breffni for getting this very interesting shot, and to rafa for calling my attention to it.