Blog de Puree

We had a new winged visitor at the backyard feeders the other day, which was very exciting. I looked out the back door and immediately noticed a new plumage pattern.

“Randye, Randye,” I called, a little too excited. “Get the binoculars and the bird book! Stat!”

I grabbed the binoculars from her and she started thumbing through the section with gray-colored birds. The bird was gray on top and white on the bottom. It had a unique white pattern on its wings, but it was difficult to make it out too distinctly. The tail was long and it had a black beak. It also looked like it had a black mask on, like a raccoon. That was all we could see before the bird flew off.

The Nothern Mockingbird
(Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife website)

From what we found, we think it’s either an Eastern Phoebe or a Northern Mockingbird. I think if we had a better view of its eyes and pattern on the wings, we would have had a better ID. However, I’m leaning towards the mockingbird because we put out a new trail mix style feed that contained raisins, and according to our trusty bird guide, the mockingbirds are attracted to raisins.