Jim Schmoker brought up a very good point when he asked me, in essence, "Does an Ovenbird parent necessarily rule out cowbird." Of course, the answer is "no". In fact Ovenbirds are parasitized by cowbirds at a high rate. Jim's email made me scramble and hopefully calling my young bird an ovenbird is still correct. The power point frame below shows the Rist Canyon bird I saw being fed by an adult Ovenbird and a juvenile of approximately the same age taken by Geoff Dennis from the BNA account of Ovenbird. While I couldn't find a great comparison photo of a cowbird at this age, I think their bill is thicker, blacker and shaped differently, and their feet are blackish as opposed to pink.
I also got a great graphic from Greg Pasquariello that depicts the plumage development of Ovenbird: http://static.wixstatic.com/media/76ca65_cceb989524c54e58bc5fba198a430f5c.png_srz_940_385_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_png_srz
Check it out for yourself.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
I also got a great graphic from Greg Pasquariello that depicts the plumage development of Ovenbird: http://static.wixstatic.com/media/76ca65_cceb989524c54e58bc5fba198a430f5c.png_srz_940_385_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_png_srz
Check it out for yourself.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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