Black-bellies Eastern Phoebe

[Shortsighted]

I was watching a couple of Eastern Phoebe next to Highland Creek and one of them had a black belly
with a relatively sharp line of demarcation between the normally light-coloured breast and the patch
of dark gray, or black on its belly. Anyone have any ideas what that's all about?


EASTERN PHOEBE

[Ally]

newly dyed hair, newest fashion apparently.    

[Shortsighted]

Look, if birds are now getting tattoos I'm outta here. No more birding!

[lovemypt]

nesting patch from sitting on nest.....but early for them but again everything is off this year

[Shortsighted]

Thanks for the edification. The location of the dark patch and the ruffled
feathers suggested something to do with nesting but the two Phoebe were
in plain view for quite a while and did not return to a nest as far as I could
tell. Then again, there was a small bridge and they do sometimes nest under
the protection of such a structure and therefore may have visited a nest
beyond my scrutiny. Thank heavens it's not a tattoo.