I think I saw one of these guys yesterday

[pscot]

It was perched on the cart return stand at Safeway. I thought the circle around the iris looked yellow, but my color vision is kind of whimsical. The picture is a eurasian jackdaw; common from Wales to Kazakstan.

[semillama]

1. Where did you see it?

What country, that is?

[pscot]

3. Cascadia

On an island in the Salish Sea.

[semillama]

4. Well, a Eurasian Jackdaw would be an extraordinary find

There are some records from the Northeast as ship-assisted arrivals; if what you saw was really a jackdaw, that's likely how it showed up.

How did you rule out any of our more common North American Blackbirds? Brewer's Blackbird is common in your area, and looks similar to the jackdaw:

[pscot]

5. That's the bird.

My bird book suggested the Jackdaw was a possibility, but I didn't remember the bill being that heavy.

[semillama]

6. Cool! Glad I could help

We scour blackbird flocks here in Ohio looking for these guys - they're a rare but annual visitor out here. But I think they're the default blackbird out your way!

[Happy2323]

2. Interesting

I haven't seen one of those birds. It has an interesting beak it looks like a hawk type but the rest of him doesn't hmmm?