ML237940151

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I was watching terns on the beach when I turned around and spotted this bird foraging toward the back of the beach. I immediately thought Gray-cheeked Thrush. The bird foraged on the beach and near the edge of the woods, and was within 10m of me for at least 15-20mins, and came as close as about 5m. I watched the bird for more than 30mins in total. Through my prior observations of Gray-cheeked Thrush wintering in South America and Bicknell’s Thrush on breeding grounds, I find that these two species give me very distinct impressions, both in appearance and in subtle foraging movements. Though this is challenging to describe. I find Gray-cheeked to be more Robin or Turdus-like, and in fact the most Turdus-like of our Catharus thrushes. This is likely because it’s the largest of our Catharus thrushes, and because of its long primary projection. Bicknell’s Thrush, for lack of a better description, I find to be much more cute than Gray-cheeked Thrush, and more reminiscent of a nightingale-thrush than a Turdus. Of course, the spectrum between a Turdus thrush and a nightingale-thrush is huge, and the difference in impression between Bicknell’s and Gray-cheeked towards the ends of this spectrum is very subtle. Having said all this, I am aware that such impressions of these species may be unreliable, and that larger Bicknell’s may very closely resemble Gray-cheeked. Nevertheless, this bird immediately gave me the impression of a Gray-cheeked, and I felt increasingly confident while observing the bird, and before I even began to examine plumage details. If any plumage features or vocalizations were more suggestive of Bicknell’s I would have been relatively surprised. Examining plumage, I noted that there wasn’t a hint of a reddish tone to the upperparts, including the tail, wings, mantle, and head, nor really even much of a brownish tinge. Instead, the upperparts were more of an olive-gray. The cheek was contrastingly grayer at certain angles with whitish streaking. The sides and flanks were a very light gray to olive-gray. The bird also showed relatively long primary projection, though of course this character is hard to judge and overlaps with Bicknell’s. I digiscoped the photos below with my phone. Finally, the bird eventually uttered 3 very quiet songs at different times. Songs sounded much more characteristic of Gray-cheeked than Bicknell’s. I’d be happy to hear any input on this.

Technical information

Model

iPhone 7

Lens

iPhone 7 back camera 3.99mm f/1.8

ISO

20

Focal length

4 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/1.8

Shutter speed

1/501 sec

Dimensions

4032 pixels x 3024 pixels

Original file size

1.61 MB