Have any of the few birders who look at this blog ever seen anything like it? Any thoughts on the cause? I found a similar photo online, and people seemed to think it was a result of diet.
March 10, 2012
Prothonotary oddity
Today Amanda spotted this strange looking bird. Without bins she described it as a prothonotary with a red face, which made no sense...until we finally got some good looks and couple of pictures. Usually these birds are purely yellow-faced.
Have any of the few birders who look at this blog ever seen anything like it? Any thoughts on the cause? I found a similar photo online, and people seemed to think it was a result of diet.
Have any of the few birders who look at this blog ever seen anything like it? Any thoughts on the cause? I found a similar photo online, and people seemed to think it was a result of diet.
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Do they feed in flowers? Could it be pollen?
ReplyDeleteWas the weird color the same on both sides of the face? If so, could be diet, though it seems strange that it would be confined to just that area. There are plenty of birds that usually have some shade of yellow, orange, or red, but occasionally show different colors (House Finches are maybe the most obvious). But they usually show that color throughout, rather than just in one area.
ReplyDeleteIf the pattern wasn't symmetric, I'd guess staining, probably from something it was eating (fruit, or pollen as mentioned above, or something similar). Especially since it's on the face.