ML491664491

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

At north point Higgins elementary school. Seemed odd for a blackbird, it stayed high in the trees, so I didn’t get any good looks. I first heard a distinct blackbird “chack!” Call from the playground. I followed the noise to the brushy thicket at the northeast side of the field behind the school. The bird was calling loudly from the top of an alder. I got horrible looks from below. Definitely was not a red-winged, looked like either a rusty or brewer’s based on size, shape, and longer bill. I was able to get a couple recordings. Ross Dorendorf and Teresa Fish arrived 30 minutes after first detection, and we used playback to call the bird in. It again stayed high in a tree, horrible light and heavy fog made it difficult to get looks at. In the binoculars the bird looked solid brown throughout with a dark eye, though in the horrible photos the bird appears to show a light eye and light supercilium. Based on the audio recordings and the initial impressions of the bird we called it a Brewer's in the field. The light eye and light supercilium seems within range of a female brewer's, but may be a better fit as a non-breeding male rusty. The bill seems longer and more sharply pointed like a rusty.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

200

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/800 sec

Dimensions

2837 pixels x 1766 pixels

Original file size

351.8 KB