Bewick's Wren w/ Unusual Plumage‏ Doug Brown 2/17/14

Chirp,

I have been seeing this curious BEWR in my front yard recently.
On Sunday I was able to photograph the bird.
Note the very dark, almost black flanks, belly, and back.
Any ideas? Thanks for your thoughts on this.




That's a neat looking bird. Opposite of leucistic. Just for the fun of it, I looked up some Latin-American wrens; the closest thing I could find was the Black-bellied Wren, found on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. I really don't think it was that. As far as I know, Bewick's Wrens do not migrate, so there wouldn't be any possibility of hybridization.

Barry Ulman



Follow-up on the unusual Bewick's Wren in my yard‏


Chirp,



I sent two photos of the unusual Bewick's Wren to Cornell Labs.



Here is the reply from Marc Devokaitis.........




Whoa—very cool!!!



A melanistic bird?

http://feederwatch.org/learn/unusual-birds/#color-variants



haven’t seen that one before!



Hope you will also consider sharing on

http://www.flickr.com/groups/birdshare/



Thanks!



Marc





Marc Devokaitis

Public Information Specialist


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BTW, I still see this unique bird almost every day.