[cobirds] Different looking Red-winged Blackbd yesterday, El Paso

Greetings, COBirders,

Just seeking thoughts, confirmation, or plumage/molt information about an immature Red-winged Blackbird that was at one of my feeders & birdbath by itself yesterday. Not like other immature male or female Red-wingeds I've seen before. (At first I thought it might be a female Tri-colored.)  Its undersides were darker & more speckled rather than streaked, in a less contrasting gray-&-beige than the more distinctive, bold streaking I'm familiar with in female Red-wingeds, and not like immature males I generally see either. No submoustachial stripe, but it did have a mildly orange wingbar. Yet this one's bill is thicker like a Red-winged rather than more slender like a Tri-colored.

I see Sibley's Guide to Birds indicates that some "1st summer male" Red-wingeds resemble Tri-coloreds, and that Red-wingeds intergrade with Bi-coloreds at the edges of the latter's range in California. And Natl Geo's Complete Birds of North America warns of difficulty differentiating female Red-wingeds (in California) from female Tri-coloreds...but of course we're not that close to California. 

Male Red-winged in Formative or "Basic I" Plumage, per Birds of the World website?

See pics in eBird post, link below.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S98150890

Thanks,

Marty Wolf

NW Colorado Springs

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