Closeups

Finally, at long last......I have waited and waited, for weeks, to get a couple of really good close ups of the varied thrushes. There are about a dozen twerping all over the yard, but only have managed to get a few of them sitting still. Pudgy little things....all that good sunflower seed food they've been stuffing into their little beaks.

I was doing some reading on these guys and found that they tend to wander awayvfrom Pacific Northwest forest to find bird feeders and hang around where there is a steady supplie of "eats". They can be so territorial. They will actually go after another thrush who tends to get too close to a particular patch of food, but they don't seem to bother the little junkos, chickadees and finches. And they seem to be quite smart. I swear they wait for me to put out the seeds in the morning, then all of a sudden they are all over........and they are polite at the feeding stations, never pushing out the other birds, but pushing out their Thrush cousins and nipping at their tail feathers.

A "Zoothera naevia" ( Varied Thrush, eating, and eating, and eating)