Date May 6, 2023
Location Prairie Oaks Forest Preserve, Kingston, IL
I saw a thrush hop up into a tree. He mostly had his back to us at first, and it clearly was not a Veery or Hermit Thrush (no rusty tail at all), so that left Bicknell's, Gray-cheeked, and Swainson's. Bicknell's is really out of range, so that left the other two.
One thing I noticed right off, because I knew the face was key, was that there was no eye ring. The face was otherwise unremarkable. He did eventually turn toward us enough that we could see the spots, and that further confirmed that it was one of the three listed above. The spots were much more distinct than Veery and too light and few for Wood Thrush.
Since it had no eye ring and no buffiness on the face, I concluded that it was a Gray-cheeked (or Bicknell's, because I didn't have the range at my fingertips or in my head). However, the nice thing was that just moments later we did see an obvious Swainson's, and the difference was quite distinct. That drove it home.
No comments:
Post a Comment