black Bird

[Porshaah]

Hi All

I have a couple of birds, all black in color including eyes and beak @ my black oil seed feeder I can't identify. They're slightly larger than the largest house finch @ my feeder but about the the same shape and size, maybe a slightly larger, rounder body, but the same beak style design for cracking hard seed shells like a cardinals'.

Any ideas
TIA

[Shortsighted]

If your black-oil sunflower seed feeder is strategically located close to terra firma
somewhere in the Galapagos then I believe I may have an ID for you, otherwise
the only blackish bird with dark brooding eyes is the Dark-eyed Junco (aka Slate-
coloured Junco), but its beak is not black. A Junco's vanguard anatomy is light-
coloured to varying degrees of .... well, lightness. Could they be government
agents in disguise? Na, ... they would still be wearing sunglasses. Any chance
of obtaining a photo of these mystery finch-like birds? I can't get the look of
a Medium Ground Finch out of my head, not that ever been to the Galapagos,
but that's the image I'm getting from your description.

[Porshaah]

Sorry...forgot to indicate southern Ontario, north shore...Pt Colborne to be exact. Definitely not a Junco...no white. Feeder is right on my outside window sill. I'll try to get a photo but I still haven't figured out how to get photos off of it (Windows 8.1 smart(er) than me phone). Just Googled ground finch (i.e. I think you got it Shortsighted but is it possible?) and this [https://ebird.org/species/lagfin1] is pretty close as far as I remember. When/if they return I'll double check...the beak seemed a bit different, if I remember correctly and I didn't notice any of the white underneath.

Thanks

[Shortsighted]

I wonder if your alien finches are escapees from some facility. AWOL if you will.
Am I correct in assuming there were two of them. Male and female? Accomplices
in the great escape. Can't be too bright, yes I know they are black birds, I mean
can't be too clever to escape a nice warm facility, with Galapagos-like temperatures
in order to visit your feeder. Do you smoke your seeds with THC? Just a thought.
A photo would be definitive if you can figure out your tech. Tech 1, user 0.

You know the famous linear drawing showing the evolution of hominids from the
diminutive and severely stooped Australopithecus through progressively grander
expressions and more impressive physiognomy all the way to Homo Erectus and finally
Homo Sapiens, standing bolt upright with a smug grin. Well, to my mind, where
ever it might be right now, I think the Anthropocene will feature the next incarnation on
the series, Homo Digitalus, dressed in banal synthetics and hunched over a cell phone,
not paying attention as its leg is lifted in full stride at the very brink of a precipice.

[thouc]

What about Brown-headed Cowbird?

[Porshaah]

nope. no brown, also the fact that the two were among the other House Finches fighting for food, not each other, tells me they're of the same family.

[Rotarran]

Maybe Lark Bunting?

[Porshaah]

right shape an size, beak is the same atleast in some of the photos, but i think i would have noticed the white on the wings.

I believe I've seen  Lark Buntings along the Friendship Trail and wondered what they were.

[thouc]

If you have photos, could you post them?

The only thing I can come up with is melanistic House Finches.

[Porshaah]

I believe thouc is most likely correct.It's hard to believe that a Finch would want to even visit Canada over the Galápagos Islands!  I've set up a camera but it will never be as good in quality, even if I'm there to take it, as the image (http://www.azfo.net/gallery/2009/html3/ ... 80201.html ) when one Googles "melanistic House Finches". I was unaware of the term melanistic  let alone Albinism occurring with birds until I seen an albino Starling this past summer. I thought nature had some mechanism in place to prevent this, otherwise we'd see a lot more, then again I guess, survival of the fittest comes into play.

Isn't nature wild!

[Shortsighted]

Didn't you say there was "two" dark finches?
This has nothing to do with the recent Hallowe'en ... does it?