Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!well!lp
From: lp@well.sf.ca.us (Lily Pond)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: What bird WAS this??!
Keywords: gurgling, bowing
Message-ID: <25412@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 13 Jun 91 01:44:02 GMT
Lines: 17


What did I just see???  It looked to be a little smaller than a towhee, with
the coloring, maybe, of some kind of blackbird (but they've never come to my
feeder before!).  I think also (coincidentally?), at the same moment, this
year's baby towhees came for the first time!

The amazing thing about this bird was that it (they -- I think there were
three -- it's just that the light was really bad) -- it kept doing this:
it would puff up its feathers, spread out and "cup" its wings, gurgle, bow,
and then trill!  The tree of them kept doing it over and over on my "feeder"
which is actually just an old crate with some birdseed sprinkled in it on my
porch.

The baby towhees looked on amazed, and their mom kept squeeking from the
roof.

I'm in Berkeley, California, by the way.