Birding in BC Community

Five of these birds popped up from the grass in the Goldstream Provincial Park estuary. My camera had a really hard time getting focus on them so this was the best photo I could get using manual focus as they landed. Might be a bit of a stretch, but can anyone figure out what these are from the photo?

Cheers,
Thomas

Hi Thomas,

These could be American Pipits based on the brown overall colour and white outer tail feathers that are showing. If there were pipits at Goldstream, they would be in the estuary scrubby bushes, grasses and thistles.

Did you see any other details for these birds? Head and body markings and colours? Did you hear and sounds or calls?

See: http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/american-pipit

I never got a good look at them, they just appeared as a group of brownish birds with light outer tail feathers that were not juncos. My memory of their flight call is poor, but I think it was quite similar to what allaboutbirds.org has for the American pipet.