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Redstart is a rare bird here; A pair of Texas cardinals
TONY AMOS
Redstart As I drove my truck into the Amos "driveway" one evening a couple of weeks ago, I heard a warbler chirping. Warblers often make a series of a high pitched chirps while foraging that is not exactly a song, but can identify the species by sound even if the bird remains unseen.
Getting out of the truck, I realized I did not know this chirp, and when I saw the bird making the noise, I stopped in my tracks. As bird watchers often do when unprepared on encountering something out of the ordinary, I stepped backwards as silently as I could, reached in the truck without taking my eyes off the little bird to feel for my binoculars and muttered evilly when all I could feel was a cup of cold coffee and a banana peel from my morning snack.
Curses! The bird was gone.
I didn't need binocs to tell me what that bird was, however; its distinctive coloring said it all: Painted redstart. Now had I been in the Big Bend of Texas or the pine/oak woods of Arizona I would have been delighted but not surprised to see Myioborus pictus, but in Port Aransas, what was the bird doing here?
 | | Rarity COURTESY PHOTOS BY TONY AMOS Tony Amos found this very rare (for this area) painted redstart in his back yard. It's more normally found in areas like the Big Bend. |
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To my delight it appeared again, and despite the dark of night coming on I was able to enjoy its antics and get a lucky photo which I give you here. I also give you photos of a pair of other birds, not quite so rare in Port Aransas, but unusual, nonetheless. These are so-called "Texas cardinals" or more properly, the unpronounceable and unspellable pyrrhuloxias.
Tony Amos is a research fellow at The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institutte in Port Aransas.
 | | Less rare This pair of Texas cardinals -- male on left, female on right -- is more properly known as pyrrhuloxias, but who can pronounce or spell that? |
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