ML590450431

Observation details

I was making breakfast and glanced up at our camphor tree. Big, heavy-bodied, large-headed bird (compared to the finches and sparrows most common in the yard now); long, thick dark bill; heavy dark (black or dark brown) line through eye extending to back of head; with wide white stripes above and below the dark eye line; rufous rump and tail; black (or dark brown) and white striped appearance of wings because of heavy white fringing on the feathers; light underside with some streaking. Overcast, dull sky made colors a little difficult to see, but no doubt about what the bird was. What a shock! It perched mostly still on a bare branch toward the top of the tree. I was inside the house and didn't hear any vocalizations, and it didn't appear that the bill opened to make any noise. A Black Phoebe and a 1st-year male Hooded Oriole came and perched nearby (out of curiosity?) and soon left. Keith took cellphone photos through scope and window. Perhaps 10-15 minutes after I first spotted it, another bird (I believe it was the oriole) came and chased it out, following it into or past the neighbor's yard on the north side of our house. After about an hour, other birders refound it in the neighborhood behind our house.