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Varied Thrush

Ixoreus naevius

Published on Project Noah
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49.1851, -122.563

Field Notes

Habitat:

frequents the forest in our area all year round (Pacific Northwest rainforest) but is very secretive except during cold periods when it cannot forage on the ground because of snow.

Notes:

For years I have known that birds will eat snow in the winter if water is not available to them, but this is the first time I have actually seen a bird eating snow. This Varied Thrush was poking its bill into the snow and then throwing its head back and swallowing it. Very interesting show!

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (13)
KathleenMcEachern
Cool! We cannot use tray feeders here anymore as the squirrel populations gets totally out of hand when we do. Eastern Grey Squirrels that is, there are no native Douglas squirrels in our area any more. Right now my feeders are all away because of bears. Hopefully they will be hibernating soon and I can enjoy my winter birds again:)
KarenSaxton
Ours eat at our tray feeder and have ever since we started using a seed wmix with cracked corn
Tom15
Kathleen you're lucky to have such a nice bird in your yard and great job catching the snow eating behavior for all of us to see!
KathleenMcEachern
Thanks Ava and Kaya! I really love the spot of colour these thrushes make in our winter garden.
Kaya.C
WOW! gotta love him... or her
Ava T-B
Lovely photos and great information.
SusanEllison
thanks for sharing the eating snow part...neat shot!
KathleenMcEachern
During this cold snap (for us!), the Varied Thrushes have been eating the berries from the cottoneaster bushes in the garden pots. A nice spot of colour in the white and grey world out there!

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Birds of the World
Mission
Hunters & Animal Food Habits
Mission
Breeding Birds of BC
Mission
Wildlife of Albion Under the Trees

Tags

Photographed
PublishedJanuary 20, 2012

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