backyard visitor

[cellio]

This visitor showed up last week just outside my back door. (That's a porch-roof support the nest is sitting on.) The first few days she took off as soon as I opened the door to enter or leave, no matter how gentle I was about it, but since Sunday my comings and goings have not disturbed her. I assume there are eggs and that protecting them is more important than fleeing me.



I took that picture this morning and the colors are true (no adjustments), though it was in shade. I took the following one this evening and adjusted for longer exposure because it was in shadows (but this one shows more of the body):



I estimate the bird to be about 8" from beak to tail. I've never seen the wings or belly clearly (just the blur of hasty retreat those first few days).

What kind of bird is this? I looked up some sites that list common western-PA birds and, among the pictures I found there, this seems closest to the downy woodpecker. But it doesn't seem especially downy, and those white rings around the eyes don't match any pictures I found. Some woodpeckers have white stripes, so maybe this is just a variation. The beak looks about right for some sort of woodpecker, as opposed to the smaller beaks on some other birds.

Comments

[gingicat]

Some kind of blackbird, I’d think. Check out iNaturalist?

[kayre]

That eye-ring makes me think some kind of vireo, but I haven't been able to pin it down yet. Not any woodpecker I know. Will spend some time with my books once I get moving today. After some further looking I'm wondering if it isn't a robin-- hard to recognize without seeing the red breast. Watch for the eggshells-- blue if it's a robin.

[wolby]

I was also thinking Robin. She just has that attitude/face shape. Can't guarantee though, I'm not very good at all the small brownish perching birds.

[cellio]

Do robins come in grayscale in addition to brown? This one -- at least the parts I can see -- seems more gray/black than the brown robins I've seen around.

Edit: apparently they do! I found this picture in a search for nesting robins:



From here.

[wolby]

Looking at google images for American Robins, it seems like they can range from tan to a darker, grayer color.

The one on this page looks quite gray to me, for instance.

Edit: bigger variety of photos on this site, including nests.

[cellio]

You were right; it's a robin.

[kayre]

:) It was fun digging it out.

[cellio]

Some of the images I found for Vireo look promising. I'm glad to know it's not a woodpecker; I'd rather avoid the soundtrack. :-)

We have a lot of robins here, but all the ones I've seen are brown (with the red breast), and everything I can see on this bird is black/gray. I can't see into the nest without using a ladder, so I haven't tried that yet -- I don't want to scare off the mom-bird and have her abandon the eggs/chicks. (I don't know if that would happen; I know almost nothing about birds. So I'm being cautious.) If I see the nest empty (during daylight) I'll try to get a look then.

[cellio]

You were right; it's a robin.

[hrj]

Definitely not a woodpecker--not only from appearance but from the nest type. The eye-ring should be useful in sorting things out, but without a look at the body and wings, I can't make a good guess. (I could probably make a good guess if it were one of my local birds, but I don't know PA.)

[cellio]

Thanks. I'm glad it's not a woodpecker that close to our house (and bedroom windows). :-)

The eye-ring seems distinctive and I've been trying to search based on that, but so far I'm not turning up much. I don't know much about birds, so there are probably better queries (better vocabulary) than what I've been trying.