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Posted by Bill Pranty on 22:44:04 01/07/07
In Reply to: Re: Possible Mountain Bluebird North Ft. Myers (Lee County) posted by Vince Lucas
Good evening all,
Definitely an interesting bird -- and I've seen far worse photos in my life.
First off, the bird certainly is NOT a Blue-gray Tanager. The color is all wrong (bright blue of the Fort Myers bird vs. dull blue-gray plumage in the tanager), and the Blue-gray Tanagers imported into Florida 40 years ago were of one of the races with white wing bars. Also, I doubt that tanagers can still be imported legally into the US.
The Fort Myers bird strikes me as being a small bird, maybe bluebird/bunting size. It looks like it really may be a Mountain Bluebird, but I think we'll need clearer photots be sure.
But is he bird perched on a bowl of bird seed? If so, that may rule out a bluebird, given that the preferred food of bluebirds -- fruits and insects -- probably are rather common in the area, eliminating the need to forage on seeds (?).
Plus, the unique hovering foraging style of Mountain Bluebird should be obvious -- but did the ENP bluebird ever hover?
Best regards,
Bill Pranty
Bayonet Point, Florida
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