Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!mailrus!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!dmark
From: dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Name that bird; I have one
Summary: maybe a cowbird?
Message-ID: <8904@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 31 Jul 89 13:15:55 GMT
References: <20890@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: dmark@sunybcs.UUCP (David Mark)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Geography
Lines: 13

In article <20890@cup.portal.com> Tycho@cup.portal.com (Chris Nanine Hall) writes:
>The Bird: Very plain, brown, finch size; no wing bars, eye ring
>or any other distinguishing characteristics.  Seed-like finch
>bill, dark legs. Wings were dark brown, the rest of body was lighter brown.
>Bird was in cattails, making "cheep" like call notes.

My guess is a juvenal Brown-headed Cowbird.  The "cheep" calls suggest a 
begging recent fledgling.  None of the standard cattail birds seem to fit the
description, and cowbirds could have parasitized a Common Yellowthroat
or some other innocent marsh-breeding passerine.  The juvenal should look
pretty much like the female BHC in plumage-- very plain.

David Mark