There was a sudden flurry of activity while I was at the bird log a few weeks ago. I was looking through my camera the entire time and honestly wasn’t sure what I was seeing. I took as many shots as I could and hoped that at least one would turn out well enough.1 After the 40-second flurry had subsided, I looked at my photos and realized …
… I’d gotten a shot of a red crossbill! It was only the second time I’d ever seen one. Hopefully you can see how it got its name. I believe the bonus bird behind it is a yellow-rumped warbler.
There were actually three or four crossbills at the bird log during that short flurry, and they left as quickly as they’d arrived. I kept looking for them and hoping they’d come back. Instead I saw a bird that appeared to be a faded red … well, actually a pastel pink.
I’d never seen a pink bird before and learned later that it was a male Cassin’s finch.2 A couple of the shots included a female Cassin’s finch as well; she was a nondescript brown.
I’ve known for years that more colorful birds are almost always the males of their species. Nonetheless, this Cassin’s finch brought me face-to-face with one of my unexamined gender assumptions. I just could not wrap my head around the idea that the pink bird was male, not female, and that the brown, neutral bird was actually the female.3
A classic case of spray-and-pray.
ID courtesy of a Facebook friend who’s both a very knowledgeable birder and incredibly patient with my incessant questions.
I’m still struggling with it. Not to mention that I’m really annoyed that pink is apparently deeply imprinted into my consciousness as a “female” color.
how ingenious of humans to make such a great natural perch and water source together.
Sometimes "spray and pray" works pretty well!