I saw this one behind some highrises in Burnaby in a small marshland environment. It flew directly in front of me and landed on an old tree stump and then quickly retreated as soon as it noticed that I was standing there. It was about the size of a crow and i didnt notice any colors on it other than different shades of grey. Any help would be appreciated I can't seem to identify it. The picture is overexposed.


Also, I saw this little one while walking down the main trail at maplewood. Is this some sort of flycatcher?


Thanks for the help!

I'm not positive about the first one, it looks an American Robin to me.
The second one is a Red-eyed Vireo. Vireos have a very horizontal stance usually, while flycatchers are very upright. The strong markings on the face and greenish back separate it from our other local vireos.

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Else Mikkelsen
Vancouver, B.C.

Thanks Esle on the Vireo identification! The first bird was bigger than any robin I've ever seen and it's breast wasn't orange at all, but, its tail feathers and wings do remind me of a robin and it did have a yellowish bill. Can robins have grey breasts?

Could the first one be a gray catbird? They usually have a thin black cap that I don't see in your photo. Also, the catbird's bill is dark.

I haven't heard of any robins with grey breasts. Young robins don't have orange breasts but they have speckled backs, unlike the photo.
I don't have much experience with catbirds, but I think the bill is too pale.
The only other bird I can think of is Townsend's Solitaire, it is robin-shaped with grey all over, but they are rare in the summer and have a smaller black bill.

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Else Mikkelsen
Vancouver, B.C.

I'm actually just assuming that the bird's bill was yellowish from the picture, I just clearly remember the feathers all being grey. It's possible that that is just a glare, it is definitely a low quality photo that's very overexposed. Also, I should of specified the time of year. I took this in the spring(April, 9, 2197 according to my camera, the year is definitely off) and was never able to figure out what type of bird it was. Now that I found this forum I thought somebody may know what it was. It's been bugging me for quite sometime. It doesnt seem to match up with any bird I can think of. Perhaps it is just an oversized robin with pigmentation issues?