Expert: Julia Booth - 4/27/2009

Question
Hi, we have been seeing a crow sized gray bird, all gray, here in Mesa AZ. Alone, at dusk the crested bird has been scratching around under the bushes.  It has black edges on the wings.  and a black tail.  It has distinctive coal black eyes.  Kind of a pigeon beak.  We imagine it is some kind of escaped exotic.  Not a native. The tail shape is like a spatula.  It sits stooped over.  We first thought of a Chachalaca but decided the crest was too big.  And no bare skin on the neck and no white tip to the tail.  The bird made no sound.  The area is a horse pasture.  Like a jungle bird but definitely not a fowl/chicken.

Answer
I'm assuming this isn't the same bird that you described in the other question.

It's got to be something foreign.

When all else fails, I tend to look at it from a taxanomic perspective, going to the genus or order that most closely resembles what was seen and scanning through all related species. That is how I personally ID something that I saw, that I know cannot be native to north America. It's hard work, I know. But you know what you saw and I don't.

Almost guaranteed that the order is galliformes, given the body shape, size and behavior your described. The only exception would be if it were some type of grackle, which would fit in the order passeriformes. But they are generally the very opposite of quiet. I'm thinking this is some kind of fowl.

List of genus belonging to order galliformes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galliformes#List_of_major_taxa

Those links seem to be bad. But that's a decent list.

Good luck,

Julia