Hello All,

I apologize for not forwarding this email sooner, the month of May slipped away from me! In light of some comments in some recent Rosy-finch records, I wanted to share this email exchange with Jason Kitting regarding pictures of a young rosy-finch photographed by McKay Olsen and later my dad and I back in late April up at Alta.

Just so folks know – there was never a record submitted for this specific bird (although it likely spurred at least one if not two record submissions). I had every intention as submitting this as additional information if Mckay was to have submitted a record, but also realize it is good information for anyone like myself who isn’t familiar with young rosy-finch ID.

Jason Kitting is one of, if not the go-to Rosy-finch expert from NM that Brian Maxfield sent the photos to (originally I believe sent by Jeff, and subsequently by me with my and my dad’s photos). For additional background, he does Rosy-finch aging and sexing identification courses for the Western Bird Banding Association and has been banding rosy-finches for 15 years.

Hope you are all doing well and are enjoying the tail-end of spring migration.

Good Birding,

Max Malmquist

  
Hello Jason,

My name is Max Malmquist, I work for National Audubon Society’s Saline Lakes Program based in Salt Lake City, Utah. I also am currently serving on the Utah Birds Records Committee, which is the primary reason I am reaching out. I also work closely with Janice Gardner and her team at Sageland Collaborative, who used to be part of the Rosy-Finch project here in Utah – the bird world is a small one!

I got your information through Brian Maxfield, I understand he sent you photos of a young rosy-finch seen at Alta, Utah on Saturday. I heard that someone sent the photos to Brian, who in-turn sent them to you. I understand that you ID’d the bird as a BCRF. There are a number of folks on the records committee (including myself) that do not have much experience with young Rosy-finches, in particular Brown-capped. It is a review species in Utah, and the observer is likely going to submit a record.

In anticipation of that – I was wondering if you would be willing to provide a brief explanation of the ID. In addition to the photos already sent to you, my dad and I refound the bird the next day and took additional photos. Here is our checklist (keep in mind it was in bright sunlight): https://ebird.org/checklist/S227602718

Any thoughts or explanation on the ID would be greatly appreciated. We will likely include it in the record itself or as supplemental information for the record, if that is okay with you.

Let me know if you have any questions – and thank you in advance!

Cheers,

Max Maliquist

  
Photos by Max Malmquist below
 

Email from Jason Kitting to Max Malmquist  (25 April 2025)

Hello Max,
Yes I am happy to send a description as well as some photos.  I'll send some of my photos of birds in the hand to show what I'm talking about in this email, and then I'll send the pictures that Brian sent me in a separate email.  Also I'm glad you got some more pictures of the bird and I'll admit I'm now more confused about this bird.  The main things I look for when separating young BCRFs and GCRFs is the crown and the color of the brown on their body.  I initially called this bird a BCRF because of the crown.  In BCRFs, the crown feathers (especially along the side of the crown behind the eye) have grayish edging but each feather has a dark center.  In young GCRFs (especially young females), the crown is often incomplete and there may only be gray on the sides of the crown, but each gray feather in this area is completely gray without a dark center.  The brown color is pretty different too.  In BCRFs, the brown is a very light tannish color, while GCRFs have a darker and deeper chestnut color.  The first two pictures are of a young male and young female BCRFs and the third picture is a young female GCRF.  The GCRF has the typical amount of gray we see in most GCRFs but I have seen way less than this but the picture shows the color of the sides of the crown.  The fourth picture is of the BCRF Brian Maxfield banded and shows the color difference in brown between GCRF and BCRF.
 
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