When:

Who:

Where:

County:

Location:

Exact Site:
N. West St.

Details: (To view more text, grab the lower-right corner of a field to widen or lengthen the box)

For older records, view original documentation here.

How Many:

Age/Plumage/Sex:
Male alternate

Habitat:
Feeder on porch of house

Distance from bird:
20 ft

Viewing Conditions:
excellent

Optics Used:
7x50 Bins

Description:
I would be silly to list details of plumage this many years later since I didn't write any at the time. It was obviously a male Bullock's. I have no notes but remember it was a male. We immediately knew it was the bird that had been reported, which would not have been the case if female. I have seen birds id'd as female or imm. male and know that debates usually occur as to whether a hybrid. So, this bird was a pure male as far as plumage. It was present from at least 3/10 to 4/13. We saw it on 4/7 and 4/13. From the 4/13 eBird entry: See 4/7 for more comments. Birds of Bucks Co. 1998 says this was there Mar-Apr. The 3/10 date when seen by Harry Franzen and our date of 4/7 & 4/13 makes it at least staying that long. It was also referenced in Birds of PA 2000 but as a female. It says the source was American Birds Vol 34 #5. I went to SORA and got the archived vol referenced. I looked at both The Changing Seasons and the Spring Migration regional report. The former had no mention but the latter had my wife and I as the observers. It had NO mention of sex. I found my original letter to Dave Cutler who was the compiler for Amer. Birds back then. My letter said, "We saw the Bullock's Oriole in Doylestown on 4/7/80 and 4/13/80. Apparently it was present for several weeks." So, I made no mention of sex. My wording suggests that I assumed he already knew about it, and I was just stating our dates of observation. I believe the bird was widely known and probably even on the Phila. Hotline by Armas Hill. I contacted the authors of Birds of PA and Jerry McWilliams said this: Apparently this was an error on my part. My copy of American Birds Volume 34 is stashed away in the attic, so I am not going to dig it up to check. Since you already checked American Birds and the sex was not given, I must have gotten it wrong. My apologies. Sorry for the error and thanks for challenging us on this matter American Birds was my source of information as indicated in the Birds of Pennsylvania, so apparently I got it wrong." From my 4/7 eBird entry: I am certain this was an adult male although I didn't write it down since it flew in and was immediately id'd as a Bullock's. There is no way a female or hybrid female would have been obvious. I can remember seeing it but don't remember any other details except a worthless one of it coming to a feeder on a porch of a residential house. My wife wrote down the street name in our journal, so I have placed it very close to where it actually was. I know avid lister Steve Farbotnik saw it, and he may have been the one who heard about it first and reported to our local birders. Harry Franzen, another avid lister saw it per records in Birds of Bucks Co. As a DVOC member maybe someone there first reported it. I have the worksheets in prep of the Bucks book and it listed Harry with a date of 3/10. So, I know the bird was there at least as early as that. Unfortunately, most of the people who might have seen it or photographed it are dead or brain dead at this point. See 4/13 for more details.

Behavior:
At feeder

Discussion:
I believe this was seen by many and likely photographed. Unfortunately, the people I knew & asked now don't have a picture. The one person who undoubtedly took a picture is dead.

How positive are you about the identification:
There was no doubt.

References:

During the observation:
Chandler Robbins field guide

Media: