Expert: Roger Lederer - 2/24/2009

Question
QUESTION: I saw this bird for the first time in my back yard near Ottawa, Canada and can't find it in my admittedly meager collection of bird books.  It is a deciduous bush habitat, with lots of open land in the region.  The bird was larger than a robin, slightly smaller than a crow and sleeker in shape than a jay.  From the back it was uniformly slate gray (no irridescence) from head (including around the eyes) to tail, including the wings with some light horizontal bars on a relatively narrow tail (at least it seemed narrow when it was resting on the tree branch).  The beak was quite short and black.  The legs and feet were yellow/orange.  The most striking part of its appearance was its uniformly light orange/coral coloured throat, breast and underwings, with the underwings tending to almost yellow/white towards the extremety.  In flight when it first flashed by the window, I thought it might be a yellow-shafted flicker, which we see from time to time, but when it landed it was clearly quite different. Hopefully you can help with an identification.  Thanks in advance.

ANSWER: Nothing that I can come up with matches your description. Larger than a Robin and slightly smaller than a crow makes it 12-16 inches long, a large bird. Orange underneath leaves only a few choices of the birds in your area of the US this time of year- and robin sounds like a possibility. Immature robins fit that description except for size.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the try, but I know robins, including immature ones.  This was not a robin.  It had a black beak, banded tail, a very bright corally-yellow-orange breast, not mottled at all, more elongated than a robin, as well as larger, and the full underside of the wings was the same extended colour as the breast.  Besides, I would not expect any immature birds, including immature robins to be here for at least another couple of months.  It's -15C out there at night. Any other ideas?  A friend thought it may be a goshawk, but that didn't really fit either.

Answer
I can't come up with anything else unless you can provide a better description. Robins will not go into mature plumage for a few months, so it could be an immature robin from last year. If your friend said it might be a Goshawk, that is wildly different from your description as a Goshawk is nowhere close to your description. Was the beak shaped like a hawks'?