Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
**very rare, irruption. Two different birds observed visiting the feeders and in the cedars. These were impressively pale and huge compared to nearby Commons. The size was comparable to rostrata or a House Finch. They stood out due to their limited flank streaking and pale gray backs with less or no beige tinge as in nearby Coues’s Hoaries. In particular, the edging on the remiges and rectrices was dramatically thick, producing a black and white barred pattern when viewed from above or behind. The tail feathers were a deep coal black with the broadest fringing on the outer vane of the outer feathers. The white fringing on the tertials especially was thick and occupied the entire outer vane. The edging evenly diminished toward the primaries, although it was always thicker than nearby Coues’s Hoaries. When viewed from the side, the ends of the primaries appeared tipped with white, producing a stippling effect reminiscent of the white tipping of gulls’ primaries. In sum, the most consistent differences between Hornemann’s and Coues’s seem to be the body size, back coloration, and amount of streaking on the flanks, undertail and uppertail coverts; finally, especially noticeable during our observations were differences in the width of the white edging of the flight feathers. We suspected two individuals on the previous day based on differences in wear of the white tertial edging, and photos and videos from these two days confirms the presence of two. One individual, as seen in a video and in photos, has especially crisp and broad tertial edging, whereas the other is more worn with some broken barbs. This crisp individual had an orange poll rather than red and its bill was thick for a Hoary, like a rostrata. The worn individual can be seen in the previous day's checklist- https://ebird.org/checklist/S80202134
Technical information
- Camera
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 81.58 MB