Today, I a type of bird which I’ve never laid eyes on before. It was mostly black, and about the same size of your average robin. The only thing that made me notice it was two bands on each of its wings, side by side. Bright orange, and bright yellow. So what kind of bird was this? A local (Middle Tennessee) bird, or someone’s escaped exotic pet?
Was it a red-winged blackbird? Were the bands horizontal or vertical? According to my Nat’l Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region, their range is all over the United States and most of southern Canada. Robins range from 9-11" in length, and red-winged blackbirds range from 7 1/2-9". In my experience, the blackbirds tend to be more orange-winged than than red.
They’re common as dirt around here, though, so I can’t imagine that you’ve never seen one before. I’ll browse through the perching birds category and see if anything else fits your requirements.
That’s probably it…it seems like the bands were about the same size, but I could just be misremembering. Thanks, though!
They can look different than the pictures, depending on how they hold their wings.
Crap. Teach me to grab a reference book.