Expert: Julia Booth - 4/4/2009

Question
We live in Canon City, Colorado and wonder if you can help us identify what bird leaves this feces on our front sidewalk during the night. The dropping is peanut shaped and size, it is dark brown/gray/green in color with a white area on it. It is obviously from a bird on the ground since it is not flattened like poo from a flying bird.  Canon City is a smaller community and we live right outside the city limits in an area with homes on larger lots. We do feed sunflower seeds and wild bird feed and water birds year round. Thanks for any insight you can give us.

Answer
The fact that it's even remotely solid makes me reluctant to think it belongs to a bird. No bird creates solid feces, even if it poops while sitting on the ground.

That sounds like it came from a rodent. If it's as large as a peanut, I'm thinking possum.

The other possibility is that it's an owl pellet. Given the size and shape, I'd say Barn Owl.

Pry it open and if you find bones inside, it's an owl pellet. Here's a picture and info about that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_pellet



Here's a scat ID guide:

http://icwdm.org/Inspection/Identification%20Key%20to%20Scatdferraro.htm


If none of this helps you, take a picture of the item in question and email it to me, and we'll get you an answer.

Julia


Juliabohemian@aol.com