What kind of bird did I see?

July 16, 2009 5:46 AM

What kind of bird did I see?

It was light brown on top and white on the bottom. Both of the colors were solid (no stripes or spots). It was the size and shape of a thrush. It had a very distinctive black stripe going straight back from the corner of its eyes.

I figured it would be a cinch to identify, but I can't figure it out. It's driving me nuts! I went through my Audubon field guide, whatbird.com, and allaboutbirds.com.

posted by diogenes to pets & animals (19 comments total)

Was it a lovely little sparrow?

Sparrows are some of my favourite birds, they're so delightful and tinsy and cute.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:52 AM on July 16

Not a sparrow. It was bigger and less round. The colors were solid, and the black eyebar connected to the eye.
posted by diogenes at 5:57 AM on July 16

Could it have been a Piping Plover?

I wouldn't say that the stripe goes "back" from the eyes, but otherwise it looks close to what you describe.

It might be helpful if you say where you saw it.
posted by Flunkie at 5:57 AM on July 16

Not a plover. It wasn't a shorebird. I saw it in the woods. It was perched on a horizontal stem in some underbrush (like a thrush would do). I'm in New England.
posted by diogenes at 5:59 AM on July 16

Waxbird?
posted by scalefree at 6:13 AM on July 16

Also called Cedar Waxwing.
posted by scalefree at 6:15 AM on July 16

you might look at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology - it's a very useful site when you're trying to ID a bird.
posted by leslies at 6:24 AM on July 16

A northern water thrush or louisiana water thrush (not sure if they range that far north..)?
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 7:22 AM on July 16

Red-eyed vireo?
posted by mollweide at 7:23 AM on July 16

The warblers I mentioned above are probably too small and too streaked to match your description. You might look through the fly catcher family- some of them are distinctly buffy/ brown on top and pale underneath. They have darker shading around their eyes but not in lines as distinct as you describe. Some species are more woodland than others. They aren't ground dwelling, but you can find them often in forest understory. (I love Id-ing birds, btw.)
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 7:35 AM on July 16

Thanks for trying everybody. No matches yet. I'm starting to suspect that there's something wrong with my mental snapshot. Or maybe I saw something that escaped from a zoo ;)

To get an idea of the brown I'm talking about, it was the color of a Cedar Waxwing's head.
posted by diogenes at 7:49 AM on July 16

A Horned Lark? I don't think they perch very much though.
posted by hydrobatidae at 8:02 AM on July 16

Take a look at images of carolina and house wrens. from individual to individual there are variations in the darkness and distinctness of darker plumage lining and extending from the eye.... Often the whiteness of the stripe above the eye accentuates this. You would tend to seem them in and around underbrush.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 8:04 AM on July 16

um, "see them".
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 8:04 AM on July 16

Maybe a Veery?
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:10 AM on July 16

Many hatchlings are just making it out of the nest about now. A brown and white bird might have been a recent fledge. It's possible you saw an immature or hatch-year Northern Shrike. There aren't too many good photos to show that plummage but maybe you can compare an adult with what you saw. Geography, habitat, and the few field marks you gave rule out a lot of birds. Field marks that would have helped with the ID include: size (I know you said larger than a sparrow but that's not telling us how large), beak description (long, short, hooked, color), tail (length, forked or not, bands, color), and best of all, song or call. Birdwatching takes practice to remember this field mark checklist. I often talk out loud while going through my list of what I see and irritate my fellow birdwatchers but I can usually 'play back' what I saw better that way. Hope this helps and keep looking.
posted by birdwatcher at 10:10 AM on July 16

Not likely, but hey. Swainson's Warbler?
posted by notquitemaryann at 11:44 AM on July 16

Try Whatbird.

Click on the icons under Basics and enter what you know about the bird, and it will deliver matching birds which you can sort through.
posted by Sallyfur at 9:37 PM on July 16

Okay, I see you did try it -- I'll try Reading Comprehension!
posted by Sallyfur at 9:38 PM on July 16