Mystery bird, Louisville

[Paula Hansley]

CObirders--

I was taking a picture of what I thought was a Black-capped Chickadee in Coyote Run Open Space in Louisville yesterday, but this bird does not look like a chickadee to me!

Any thoughts?

Paula Hansley

Boulder County

--

[Colin Woolley]

Its a bushtit and possibly a melanotis/dimorphicus subspecies, formerly considered its own species, Black-eared Bushtit. They are found further south in NM/TX and Mexico. Males of this group show the full black mask, although some black mask can sometimes show up in juv males of our resident subspecies plumbeous. I'm not sure if that's a possibility with this one as it seems fully black in the auricular. There seem to be more of these 'black-eared' ones showing up, including apparent females, and it may not be indicative of subspecies at all. Taxonomy.... Any photos showing the eye?

Colin Woolley

Wheat Ridge

[Paula Hansley]

Re:  Bushtit (Melanotis subspecies)

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about the bird picture I posted earlier today-- especially Ted Floyd, who confirmed that it is indeed a Melanotis ssp.

Paula Hansley

Louisville