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We moved last weekend and the local birds have been quite happy with our yard and birdfeeders.

So far we've been visited by cardinals, starlings, sparrows, and downy woodpeckers.

There's one bird I haven't been able to identify yet. It's probably the size of a robin, a soft-charcoal gray color with a white breast/belly. It doesn't often eat from the feeders; we've seen it picking at the ground for bugs and cleaning up seed from our deck.

Unfortunately we still have limited computer/internet access so I can't post any pictures....any ideas what it might be?

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

A mocking bird?

Yes, I was thinking Northern Mockingbird as well.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I also vote mocking bird.
Best way to tell, borrow a cat, see if the bird will divebomb it and peck at the backside

My parents had them all the time, would always try and pick on our cats.

^_^

It is very difficult to tell with thatkind fo description . You'll have to provide more specifics...

When I first noted your descroption, I envisioned a warbler of some sort, bt it could just as easily have been some sort of thrasher, thrush (of course, per your robin description), even one of the larger pipits---maybe I missed your locality, but coming off of a black slate, I'm just throwing out a few names.

Warblers and Pipits are significantly smaller than American Robins (which are fairly large songbirds at 10" average length). Additionally, there are no Thrashers found in the US with plain white bellies.

The Northern Mockingbird is by far the most likely suspect due to its sheer abundance and conspicuous behavior, but other possibilities are the Gray Catbird or the Townsend's Solitaire, both of which are known to forage on the ground for insects.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

“Warblers and Pipits are significantly smaller than American Robins (which are fairly large songbirds at 10" average length). Additionally, there are no Thrashers found in the US with plain white bellies.”
I’ll certainly give you that both NW/OW warblers (as well as the wood-warblers) and pipits are significantly smaller than the largest of robins, but to the untrained eye (I’ve only been birdwatching a handful of times, so I suppose that would include me), and IIRC, she merely mentioned that they were similar in morphology to thrushes, not size wise. Also, all of the thrashers around here have a fair amount of fron breast countershading—definitely as much as any mockingbird I’ve seen, though the two diverge in contrast as the front breast tucks down to the anal region.


“The Northern Mockingbird is by far the most likely suspect due to its sheer abundance and conspicuous behavior, but other possibilities are the Gray Catbird or the Townsend's Solitaire, both of which are known to forage on the ground for insects.”
Most thrushes are ground foraging birds at least some of the time. Again, without a picture, it’s going to be a shot in dark, more or less… perhaps it could be a cuckoo of some sort, though, at this time of the year, they are either just heading back or still wintering, so it doesn’t seem quite as likely.

Oh, she did say it was robin sized. Never mind.

Could be a kill dee. They will feign an injury to try to draw you away fron their nest if you are near. They also do a weird motion with their wings that supposedly is to scare bugs and make them move to make it easier for the bird to locate them. They have an appearance similar to a gray blue jay.

The mocking bird is our state bird down here and when I read your description, it sounds like a mockingbird to me too.

They are loud, noisy, obnoxious things that will savagely go after cats. I've seen them dive bombing my 20 pound male cat, Ratito, with no fear.

does the bird in question look anything like this: http://www.lsjunction.com/bird.htm

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."