By James Reddoch
An uncommon visitor from the far west has found its way to Western Maine this winter. A varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius) has been confirmed at a private residence along Highway 113 in Stow, ME. According to a report on May 3rd, it had been coming to feed on the ground below the feeders.
Varied thrushes breed in old-growth forests of Alaska, British Columbia, and the Pacific Northwest. Years ago, I considered myself fortunate to find a varied thrush along a mist-shrouded road above Homer, Alaska. In spite of the male’s bold orange and steel-gray coloration, the bird seemed to disappear before my eyes into the dense brush along the road.
Don’t be surprised if something about this bird looks familiar—it belongs to the same family as the more common American robin. Both birds are similar in size, shape, and behavior. They even have somewhat similar coloring. Instead of the well-known pattern of slate gray above and an orangish-red breast like our robins, the varied thrush’s slate-gray feathers are accented by splashes of orange on its throat, eyebrow, chest, and flight feathers. One might say it is a “variation on a theme” when compared to the robin. In fact, varied thrushes can sometimes be found foraging alongside American robins in their western wintering range.
A question that may come to mind at this point is: How did this bird end up so far away from its home range? No one knows. Maybe some of the storms—the atmospheric rivers we hear so much about on the news—pushed this bird east. These birds are also known to spread out (or irrupt) outside of their normal range during the winter. eBird shows reports of this species across the United States and Canada, and I was surprised to find over 20 reports of varied thrushes in Maine dating back to the 1980s. Dare I push the play on words too far and say we see “variations” in this thrush’s winter range?
In any event, it has been exciting to hear about this uncommon bird finding its way to our corner of the world. It’s also a nice reminder to pay closer attention to the robins in my yard. Who knows? Maybe I won’t have to go back to Homer, Alaska, to find my next varied thrush.
Photo Credit:
VJAnderson. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
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