Whatbird.com

Excuse the poor photos (but if I had a better one I wouldn't be asking)... I believe this is either a female Brewer's or Rusty Blackbird, but it seems to have qualities of both: Gray-brown body and possible dark eye (Brewer's) with reddish-brown in the wings (Rusty). No obvious iridescence. Presumably the dark eye rules out Rusty, but the reddish-brown wing coloring is not depicted for Brewer's in any of my guide books. Thoughts? Natural variation for Brewer's?

 

This is where location and date can really help.  When and where was the pic taken?

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Randy

Looks rather like a juvenile starling to me, but I agree, a location (including habitat) and date would help.

Location: n.e. Illinois, July 2. (I didn't give the location originally so as not to prejudice responses since Rusty is uncommon here in summer.)

But I think you're right about juv. Starling. I can't believe I didn't even look at that page in my books or that I wouldn't have recognized the shape (although it was far away). In fact there were other birds with it that had a pale gray head and dark eye line, plus the reddish wings -- which would be consistent with Starling plumage "in between" young juvenile and molting juvenile as shown in Sibley (i.e., before acquiring the spots). 

Thanks!