ML115605841

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Life Bird #399!!! Continuing. Arrived right after sunrise, heard it calling (Swainson's Thrush-like "whit"), and located it within minutes of arrival. First successful chase after a tortuously long drought. In same tree described by Wednesday Walkers previously, (many thanks!), chowing down on the berries and chasing/being chased by every other bird in the area. It tends to be up in the tree(s) (it also goes atop the lower bushes to the left of the berry tree) for a moderate amount of time, eating or sitting calmly or chasing or what have you. It does have a few "favorite" berry-bearing branches on that tree. Then it will drop down out of sight for 10-15 minutes. Then it will reappear and repeat the cycle again. Surprisingly smallish, lean, dark, patchy bird. Massively long, slender tail. Fine crest that flops in the wind. Dark red eyes that appear warm brown in poor lighting. Bright wing bars. Glossy overall in direct sunlight. I was surprised that no other birders were there this morning to see it, but eventually more came to where we were standing and admiring the Phainopepla, and all got great looks. Even two brand-new birders passing by on bicycles got great looks at it, as the pair saw that I was watching something and stopped to ask what it was. They were very, very excited to have gotten the chance to see such a beautiful and rare bird.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D300S

ISO

500

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/9.0

Shutter speed

1/200 sec

Dimensions

893 pixels x 637 pixels

Original file size

232.44 KB