Mystery bird

[contender]

I've been seeing this bird around my range the last few days. It is an odd color variation of what I'm sure is a common species. However, I have been trying to identify it w/o any luck. In any event, it's unusual, and was fun to get pics of. It feeds on bugs in the grass, and flys up into the trees when things get too close ot it. My thoughts are it's a sparrow but the tail is longer than the ones I usually see.

 

[doccash]

Contender: Field Sparrow or a Junco would have to be good guesses from your photo. Dr.C

 

[Jbrown75]

Can't find anything definitive in Peterson's guide. Could be either of Doc's suggestions or maybe a species of Towhee.

 

[btrumanj]

It does look like some kind of sparrow but we've never seen one with tail feathers that long.

 

[contender]

The tail feathers are what keep me confused. I definately looks a lot like a sparrow, and acts like one, but those long white tailfeathers do confuse me. In any event, the bird is a dirty white, with very white tailfeathers, and the light brown tinting along it's back. It caught my attention when I was driving out as it's a stark white looking bird where we have none like that around here. Luckily, when I went & got the camera, it had settled down in the parking area of my range, and was feeding on bugs. I took several pics. I may post a few more later after Miss Penny emails them to me. (I used her camera, and my computer doesn't recognize her camera.)

 

[rich e]

looks like some kind of Phoebe to me, with some albino traits. Perhaps an albino Says Phoebe???

 

[Jbrown75]

While I will agree it's some sort of albinism going on there, the bill is wrong to be a Phoebe. Phoebe's have a much narrower, pointed bill. The tail feathers are what is going to give it away I think, as Contender said, they are very different from the sparrows and such I have seen.

 

[panik44]

I'm along with the albino as well.

 

[americal]

NEVER seen that color combo or the look before :arrow: 8) CHECK those eyes out :!:

 

[btrumanj]

Don't know how large that bird is but we have a lot of young strange colored cardinals this year and their beak is similar to that.

 

[Jbrown75]

I wonder if it isn't an albino Bunting of some variety? It's got the correct tail shape and bill. If it's nearly the size of a Cardinal then that may just be the answer.

 

[tookalisten]

My vote is for a partial albino house sparrow or perhaps finch. Never seen an albino trait in all my years of birding. Great pic!

 

[contender]

Ok, it's not the size of a cardinal, but much closer to the sparrow. As for the eyes in the pic, that was the dreaded "red eye" of the camera, not it's actual eye color. In that pic, the bird had stopped feeding, and was eyeballing me, and stood still. After it determined I wasn't a threat, it kept on darting around in the grass chasing, catching & eating bugs.
It's also bigger than the finches we have around here.

 

[cwegga]

My vote is for some sort of albino Towhee.

 

[tookalisten]

Found this website with a few albino bird pics. That towhee does look pretty close in comparison.
http://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2008/AlbinoBirdPhotos2.htm

 

[Jimbo357mag]

A Field Sparrow can be light colored and have quite a long tail.

http://www.roysephotos.com/FieldSparrow.html

This is an albino House Sparrow.

http://www.nationalgeographicstock.com/ngsimages/explore/explorecomp.jsf?xsys=SE&id=1337333

...Jimbo

 

[contender]

While the albino Towee looks a lot like it, we are in NC and we don't have that species here. However, the field sparrow is also very close. I'm seriously begining to believe it's a sparrow species.
I also haven't seen it in a couple of days either.