ML645842552

Observation details

***MEGA; dark brown thrush, slightly smaller and shorter-tailed than American Robin with streaky underparts, pale eyebrow, chestnut breast sides/under shoulder, yellow bill base. Not confident on subspecies, but extent of thick blurry streaking on underparts with buffy base color seems to lean towards Icelandic (coburni)? I was standing in the yard watching finches and waxwings fly over, and heard a strange mumbling song that sounded something like a buzzy, scratchy mix between American Robin and Pine Grosbeak? Spotted a bird in the top of a tree across the street; not sure what I expected when I put bins on it, but immediately realized this was a Redwing! Frantic combo of digiscoping, texts, and phone calls. It was perched up for several minutes, then dropped into fruiting trees right in our backyard, then back up into dead ash trees, and eventually east towards the West Spit. It was calling frequently, a high-pitched, descending, finely buzzy "tzeeew". We relocated in a yard at the base of the West Spit, but then it flew back towards our neighborhood. AG arrived just in time, seeing the bird then fly back east with a flock of robins, and we couldn't relocate after that. It's probably worth checking areas that have lots of fruiting trees and more "sticking power" east of here in the coming days - Durand, Webster Park, etc.