12 replies to this topic

[Lschinaia]

Hi I need help identifying a bird. Unfortunately I found it in my pool, it had drowned. I did not take a picture.
The bird was brown body, and yellow chest, long beak straight, with a mid-sized rounded tail, and long legs.

I thought it maybe a wren, but the carolina wren has too much white, and the house wren doesn't have a yellow chest.
Anyone know what this birds may have been?

Thanks
L

[creeker]

I would look at Yellow-headed Blackbird and Eastern or Western Meadowlark, depending on your location.

[ColoTomo]

Just to throw it out there, since you considered the bird close to the size of a wren, how about Yellow-breasted Chat?

[Lschinaia]

Thanks guys, the chat has the right coloring but is too big and the beak was very thin and straight.
It was too small to be a meadowlark or a yellow head. It was about 4 - 5 inches. The legs were almost longer than the body, and beak was thin and longer (about half inch) with a yellow chest and brown body, no white marks, no speckles like the house wren. Very confused I cannot find out what she was.

[BarnSwallow]

The legs can look much longer when a bird is dead because it is completely relaxed.

[Lschinaia]

I am thinking it's either a common yellowthroat juvenile/female or a yellow bellied flycatcher. I think I have heard their song around here, but we aren't exactly a marsh area. It's a drought here but we have many lakes around, and tall grass, most of the marsh area dried up. Are these two birds found in Indiana? (central Indiana) The flycatcher has a shorter beak though, this bird had a more thin wren like beak. I think it was either learning to fly, or trying to catch bugs that were in the pool. I wish I had saved it sooner. They maybe nesting in the pipes of our clothes line. Or the bushes. It's an open field here, if it was wet we would have some puddles and swamp areas.



http://tgreybirds.co...lowthroatp.html

[psweet]

Check out female Common Yellowthroat.

[psweet]

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher would have a much different shaped bill, as you noted, and shouldn't be anywhere near central Indiana by mid-June. Yellowthroats are primarily birds of marsh and wet meadows, and are quite common nesters in the midwest.

[Lschinaia]

Ok then It was a yellow throat, cool good to know. Any ideas on how to keep them out of my pool?

[Pat B.]

Psweet beat me to it - sounds like the mystery bird I saw last weekend, which turned out to be a female Common Yellowthroat - very nondescript, non-streaky little bird, but with that yellow throat and undertail.

[Shoveler26]

Hey You Live in Indiana were I live there as well! and Yes Agree With Common Yellowthroat

[psweet]

I don't think you have to worry about them ending up in your pool again. This sounds like there was something wrong with it - exhaustion, illness, or a predator chased it into the water.

[Lschinaia]

Thanks guys. Yes I am in Indiana I think the bird was a juvenile from the missing feathers in patches and very young looking. It's an above ground pool and all my dogs/cats were inside. I don't think it just dropped in. Perhaps if it had some marks I would think it was one of the Harriers or Peregrines we have flying around here. We have many hawks. It might have been trying to get a drink, or flee a hawk. Thankfully I have not seen another one in or around the pool.