CLOSED: Galveston in April

I saw these birds on April 8th on the west end of Galveston Island. First one flitted in and out quickly, so not many photos.

First is probably a Tennessee Warbler

Second is a Northern Mockingbird

Resin

Those are fascinating shots, Patti...how lucky you are to have captured such cool birds!

I'm sure Resin or someone else familiar with those birds will be able to ID both, but you got my curiosity up so I spent some time looking to see if anything matched the 2nd one.

I'm sure I'm wrong, but the only birds that even looked close (at least to me) were the Northern Mockingbird and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. The Flycatcher had a much longer tail and it looked like it had black eyes. The Mockingbird had brownish eyes, but also wasn't a perfect match.

It will be interesting to find out what they are so I'll be watching this thread. Sorry I couldn't be more help, but here are some of the pics I found.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_mockingbird/id

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Scissor-tailed_Flycatcher/id

https://www.flickr.com/photos/galvestonbirds/356017477/

http://www.pbase.com/photon180/image/150630250

Wow...that's amazing. I see Resin posted just before I finished adding my links. Well that solved my curiosity as well as yours. You can obviously disregard the Flycatcher, but possibly the other pictures will be useful.

Yep, that's the only Mockingbird in North America.

Nuts, I found your post to be very interesting because I thought the second bird looked like a Northern Mockingbird, but it was in a group of Scissortail Flycatchers! You had the same thoughts that I did. We have millions of Mockers around here (state bird), so I know what they look like. This one just didn't seem right. Some people spotted a Tropical Mockingbird in Galveston a couple of years ago, so I thought maybe that's what it was.

Thanks, Resin.

Patti

Patti, that is interesting. I would have never thought they'd hang out together.

I actually feel kind of dumb because Mockers are common and I know there are variations in all birds, but I just wasn't sure. I haven't seen that many of them even though we have them around here, since they don't visit my yard.

I bet a lot of unusual birds, like the Tropical Mocker, show up in Galveston...possibly blown off course or mixed in with another flock headed north?

Well we both learned something new...cool!