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February 08, 2007  FAQ Attack Every week I receive a number of bird and birding related questions. Some questions come via phone, some via email, and some in person. I enjoy answering the questions that I receive, and when someone walks up and begins a conversation with a bird question, it makes a refreshing break from the more traditional conversation starter of “What about that weather?” Identifying birds from digital pictures is especially gratifying. Most questions concern bird identity. With the exception of one or two birds a year, the birds are usually common and only require that the bird is described well enough that I can form a mental image of what is being described. This can take some time and is quite intensive on my part because once I’m stirred up; I pursue a mystery bird like Dick Tracy going after Prune-Face. Some interrogations are so relentless that I ask the person if they mind being grilled when I can’t make an immediate identification. Most people agree, but don’t realize what they’re in for. These intense verbal exchanges often take place in shopping areas; and if the bird is not quickly identified, then many minutes of aisle-blocking arm waving, and bird noises ensue. Why does every person with a shopping cart converge on my aisle just as the most intriguing bird questions are popped? Some of the information-gleaning sessions don’t end well. During protracted engagements the person can end up scurrying away as they are continuously bombarded with more questions. I think some people have actually abandoned their shopping carts and left the building in an attempt to avoid meeting me again in some other part of the store. What did they expect? I warned them it could get ugly. Bird sounds and songs comprise another category of bird questions. Some people publicly regale me with whistles and chirps and no hint of embarrassment. I am, however, quite shy about making bird sounds in public places and often find myself listening with distracted attention, eyes darting about to see who else is watching. I feel that through such demonstrations I’ve only really been able to identify one bird song with certainty - the song of the male Black-capped Chickadee. And furthermore, I seem to make this auditory pronouncement to the same people several times a year. But now to another question type. A question that teaches me something about a bird that I thought I already knew quite well. The most recent example of this type came from Michigan by email. A lady from Michigan asked me about a Varied Thrush sighting at her feeder. She wanted to know if there were many Varied Thrushes where she lived, and she also mentioned that the Varied Thrush she spotted was a variation in which all the orange parts of the bird are replaced by white. She went on to say that she had heard such variations might be responsible for these birds ending up in odd places. I was mystified by the white-instead-of-orange plumage, but first I ascertained how often Varied Thrush are spotted in the state of Michigan. Sibley’s Guide to Birds informed me that individual sightings of Varied Thrush have been reported right across to the East Coast, but I wanted to know specifically about Michigan. As I do in these cases I went to the Internet and searched ‘Varied Thrush Michigan.’ In short order I found that there was only one sighting in 2005, and one sighting in 2006. …But what about this “white-not-orange form of the Varied Thrush?” An answer appeared within Wikipedia. A short paragraph at the end of the general description stated that such a variation in plumage does exist and it was this form of the Varied Thrush that ended up in England giving rise to speculation that this variation might cause strange migration patterns. I emailed the lady from Michigan and told her what I’d learned. I also suggested to her that the birders in Michigan might be very interested in her sighting and perhaps if the bird was still around, she might take a photo of it. I never heard further from her but I certainly learned something about Varied Thrush from her email. Varied Thrush are very common here in the west and as the evenings grow longer and the snow begins to melt under the evergreens it will soon be Varied Thrush migration time. The Varied Thrush is one of my favourite birds and I’ve spent much time looking at these beautiful relatives of the robin. VF’s are attracted to feeders so I get to see them up close. The females are as interestingly coloured as the males, though generally paler and possessing a coppery sheen over much of their feathering. But in all of my Varied Thrush watching I’ve never seen the white-where-the-orange-should-be variation. It may be some time before I can work this Varied Thrush variation into my interrogation routine but where there’s a pause in the conversation, there’s a way. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
