ML487265101

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

As we drove up to the trees behind the old high school, a bird flushed up and perched in the open near the top of a Sitka spruce. I got a quick binocular view and saw that the bird was clearly a turdus thrush with a patterned orange breast. The size and shape were similar to that of an American Robin. The bird flew off to the right, landed briefly in another tree, then flew again and landed in the open at a distance of about 80 yards. We got clear flight views of the bird and were struck by the bright rufous-orange tail, which was obvious even to the naked eye. Other than the bright tail the overall look of the bird was soft grayish-brown. We were able to get excellent scope views as it hopped around along a gravel bank, much like an American Robin would. In the scope it was clear that the breast was heavily patterned with orange diamonds forming a neat pattern along the sides of the breast and flanks. The orange patterning continued into the under tail. There were no black markings anywhere in the breast, belly, or under tail. The back was unstreaked grayish brown. The tertials, scapulars and wing coverts were fringed rufous-orange. The auriculars formed a grayish patch on the face. An orange-ish collar wrapped up behind the auriculars. The supercillium was dull orange at the rear and pale buffy at the front. Dark gray malar marks were obvious. The entire face and upper parts had a soft grayish cast and lacked any marked contrast. The base of the lower mandible was yellowish. The rest of the bill was dark. We did not observe any black in the tail, however, flight photos reveal that the distal third of the central retricies were blackish. The underwing coverts were orange. There is a previous sight record of Naumann's Thrush for Adak Island from 10 October 1982. See Gibson and Byrd (2007) Birds of the Aleutian Islands.

Technical information

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2054 pixels x 1371 pixels

Original file size

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