Expert: Julia Booth - 1/7/2010

Question
QUESTION: I live about 20 miles west of Boston MA. Yesterday 1/5/10 on the cable line outside my house I saw a bird that I have never seen before. It was bright orange like the fruit with a black face, not the total head, just the face. The black was sort of in the shape of a three leaf clover. It had a little plume on it's head. It was a small trim bird and sat very erect. Any idea what it might be.   


Thank You

John

ANSWER: I went through all four of my books. But I know of no bird that is native to MASS that would fit that description. It's possible that it was someone's escaped pet. I can only think of a handful of North American birds that have a plume. Is it possible that you meant crest, like what a cardinal has? Just need to be sure.

If you can give me anymore details that you think might help, let me know.


Julia

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

QUESTION: Thank you Julia..yes it is a crest like a cardinal.  I got a good same level look at it because it was on the cable right outside my window.  Hope that helps

Answer
Again, I appear to be stumped. There are only a handful of truly “orange” birds that live in your state, and none of them are crested. It’s possible that what you saw was a cardinal in some various stage of molt. OR you may have seen a Baltimore Oriole or Black-headed Grosbeak.

Unfortunately, you know better what you saw than I do. I recommend using this search engine:

http://identify.whatbird.com/mwg/_/0/attrs.aspx

You can search by a number of variables. And it's very easy. If that still doesn't help you, let me know and we'll take it from there.


Julia