Greetings, COBirders,
Just seeking thoughts, confirmation,
or plumage/molt information about an immature Red-winged Blackbird that was at one of my feeders & birdbath by itself yesterday.
Not like other immature male or female Red-wingeds I've seen before. (At first I
thought it might be a female Tri-colored.) Its undersides were darker & more speckled
rather than streaked, in a less contrasting gray-&-beige than the more
distinctive, bold streaking I'm familiar with in female Red-wingeds, and not like immature males I generally see either. No submoustachial stripe, but it
did have a mildly orange wingbar.
Yet this
one's bill is thicker like a Red-winged rather than more slender like a
Tri-colored.
I see Sibley's Guide to Birds indicates that some "1st summer male" Red-wingeds resemble Tri-coloreds, and that Red-wingeds intergrade with Bi-coloreds at the edges of the latter's range in California. And Natl Geo's Complete Birds of North America warns of difficulty differentiating female Red-wingeds (in California) from female Tri-coloreds...but of course we're not that close to California.
Male Red-winged in Formative or "Basic I" Plumage, per Birds of the World website?
See pics in eBird post, link below.
Thanks,
Marty Wolf
NW Colorado Springs