Showing posts with label Hermit Thrush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hermit Thrush. Show all posts
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Sunday, April 10, 2022
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Sunday, February 14, 2021
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Oklahoma Winter Bird Profile: Hermit Thrush
The beautiful Hermit Thrush can be identified from other spotted thrushes by its complete narrow white eye ring, as well as its contrasting reddish tail. It chooses drier and brushier habitat than most of the other thrushes, foraging upon the ground and can generally be located in habitat similar to the Swainson's Thrush.
There are three distinct subspecies, which include the Taiga or Eastern, Interior West, and the Pacific. The hardy Eastern birds have thicker bills with pale buffy tips on greater coverts, stocky, and brightly colored. Interior West are pale and grayer with very limited red wash on the flight feathers. The Pacific are more spotted than the Eastern, thinner billed than all of them, with white undertail coverts.
The voice is like that of most spotted thrushes, an ethereal flued whistle without the clear rising and falling, which is due to the syrinx, the double vocal organ at the base of the bird trachea. The thrushes have some of the most advanced organs in the world, leading to a dual sound, much like the ability of the twelve string guitar.
Hermit Thrush
NW Corner Payne County CBC, 2017
The most hardy of the thrushes, this passerine migrates earlier in the spring and returns to its home base later in the fall in late September-October. It is likely the only thrush to be found in most of the US in the winter. Those that do migrate will be in flight overnight, except the Pacific Northwest, which usually remains there. This thrush is more related to the Mexican Russet Nightingale-Thrush than to its own US family members, and usually can be found singing from a high perch.
Often found during the Christmas Bird Count, this unusual bird of never ending wonder has been described in many written works.
East of the Rockies, this bird is usually a ground nester, and West of the Rockies, it nests in trees. This neotropical migrants finds its way as far south as Central America in the winter.
To See Interior West Hermit Thrush and Birds of Arizona:
https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2018/05/birding-on-shoestring-wilds-of-arizona.html
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Sunday, December 31, 2017
A Portion of Christmas Bird Count, Northwest Payne County
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Barred Owl
Hermit Thrush
Golden-crowned Kinglet
12-30-17
1050-1610/19 F (wind chill 11F)/mostly cloudy with very light snow/NNE-8
This was a most fortuitous day, even though it was extremely cold and very cloudy. When one is a
serious birder, the only thing that matters for Christmas Bird Count is that the barometric pressure be rising. Today, it was.
With this being my first cold day out and about since hand surgery, I was slightly apprehensive, but we were car birding and that literally took the chill out of my apprehension.
When we got to our destination, we encountered a very light snow, which lasted the better part of this trip, which for all intents and purposes, I considered icing on the cake. Serious birders know that certain things are a plus for birding and I knew this was going to be an incredible day. Even though we were the last to sign up for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, our area was not terribly desirable due to lack of bodies of water, weather conditions improved it. When the barometer rises like it did, things rapidly change for the better.
Our day was excellent, not only for what we saw, but for what happened to make itself visible. These
photos happen to show what I considered good birds for me, because the better part of these, I had been unable to photograph until today. The shot of the Golden-crowned Kinglet isn't the usual quality that I hope for, but this shot took YEARS. The Hermit Thrush doesn't usually make itself visible, so this was the first photo op that it ever gave me. I had only heard it in the past. This adult Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was the first adult that I have been privy to in such prime conditions.
My companions were equally as happy. So when you have something to do when it comes to birding and the weather is not quite to your liking, you'd best get out there, because you could have missed those pictures that you have been trying to obtain for quite some time. I'm glad that I did it.
By the way, my hand did quite well.
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