WildView™

October 25, 2024

A Striped Mystery

- as seen by -

Sarah Edmunds

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Walking through the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo one spring morning, I was captivated by this beautiful, unfamiliar brown streaky bird.

I almost mistook her for a sparrow until her behavior and then her striking markings caught my eye. She was perched right at eye level, delivering high-pitched whistles while puffing up her feathers and generally putting on quite a show. As a relatively new birder, I felt the euphoria of thinking this might be a lifer (a first-time sighting of a species) mixed with bewilderment as the ID evaded me.

After poring over several field guides and websites, I finally found my bird. Conical bill, heavy brown streaking overall, and a call that Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes as a “distinctive, matter-of-fact check.”

She was a female red-winged blackbird! Female red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), I have come to learn, are notoriously tricky for many beginner birders.

When I realized that she was not a lifer but in fact a species whose rather ostentatious males I’d seen countless times, I was all the more enamored by this encounter and the continual wonders birding brings.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This photo was chosen as one of the top submissions for Wild View’s Spots and Stripes assignment. Congratulations!

Canon EOS Rebel T5i 55-250mm Zoom Telephoto Lens

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