Posted by Bryant Roberts on September 01, 2003 at 20:36:52:
While killing time midday today, hoping that my tent would dry out
between showers after a long weekend camping at Long Pine Key
Campground and birding birding in and around Everglades National
Park I came upon an interesting little finch. It was very dark and bit
smaller and shorter tailed than a Painted Bunting but with a similarly
proportioned bill. It's upperparts, back, wings, and tail were a dark
greenish-gray. It's bill and face in front of it's eye was black and the
underparts were very dark grey with some black mottling on the throat and
breast, it's legs were dark. I was able to observe the bird for about
half an hour while it fed actively in the mowed grass along the road and
sang many times from the brushy pinelands understory. It was the song
that gives me some reservations about it being a Black-Faced Grassquit.
What I heard repeatedly was a buzzy "tzip-zezezezezeze-tzrrr" lasting
about two seconds, the first part was a little lower pitched than the
second which was very rapid, the last part was the most prolonged and
lowest pitched and had a bit of a burr. The National Geographic 4th
edition gives the song as"a buzzing tick-zeee", close but no cookie. Can
anyone out there match up this song with a bird that matches the
description? For those interested in looking for this bird it was seen
along the road into Long Pine Key near the turnoff to the camping area.
Other birds seen this weekend that may be of interest were a
White-tailed Kite on saturday (8/30) along Research Road and two
Gull-Billed Terns at Eco Pond on sunday. These terns seem to
have been hanging around almost for almost a year. There was
also a Wilson's Warbler at Royal Palm Hammock this monday
morning.