[EBB Sightings] Mystery Bird at Children's Fairyland

Ralf Stinson wrote:
> I saw some of the other replies saying Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola) and
> I recalled seeing one at Hickham AFB, Hawaii.  I checked my Hawaii's Birds
> book and my pictures from Hawaii and it is an excellent match except for no
> orange on the head.  We all know that diet plays a part in a bird's color,
> so the 'missing' orange could be diet.

The orange doesn't show well in the pictures - just a little in #3 - but 
it was quite noticeable on the ground, adding greatly to our confusion. 
We had 14 on the trip plus 2 leaders, and no one had seen anything like 
it before.

The pix at this site Glen Tepke suggested are very much like what we 
saw: http://mangoverde.com/birdsound/spec/spec202-177.html

I suspect the book may have played up the orange, or at least shown a 
particularly well-marked individual - bird books tend to emphasize the 
field marks, showing the equivalent of the movie stars and fashion 
models of bird life instead of the ordinary chump-on-the-street sort of 
birds....

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