northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's another Veery from last spring. Veeries are in a fairly good-sized family of birds, the thrushes . Some of the other thrushes look somewhat similar, some rendition of brown on top and whitish below: Hermit Thrush Swainson's Thrush Wood Thrush Other relatives are red-breasted, making them a little easier to identify: American Robin Eastern Bluebird  And then there are birds that sound like they're related to the thrushes, but are actually a type of warbler : Northern Waterthrush This is the complicated world of the birds. May 18, 2023 at Willowwood Arboretum Photo 292813063, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

You knew I needed to do a pun on the Veery's name, didn't you? These birds sound like they're saying "veer", hence their name. You can kind of interpret this as Thrush Week, since this is the 3rd thrush I'm featuring this week. And while the American Robin and Eastern Bluebird are distinctive and colorful enough that misidentifications are rare, the Veery, Swainson's Thrush , Wood Thrush , and Hermit Thrush are all mostly earth-toned above and white-with-some-speckles below. If you're not good with bird vocalizations and don't get a pretty good look at the last 4, identification can be difficult [1]. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422617, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] And don't let the names fool you. It's not a Wood Thrush just because you saw it in the woods, and it's not a Hermit Thrush just because it was alone when you saw it.

For Throwback Thursday, here's a bird from around 5 years ago. Back when I was working at Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia [1] I would walk through on-premises woods and meadows where I met this Wood Thrush 1 summer. This is another thrush that's fairly similar to ones like the Hermit Thrush and the Swainson's Thrush . They are considered 1 of the best singers among our song birds. They achieve this because they can sing 2 notes at the same time, and do it in harmony. While males of many birds perform song matching , where a bird sings a song and a rival tries to sing the same song, the more individualistic Wood Thrush will counter a rival's song with a distinct song of their own. Like some other birds, they also have a clever technique to raise as many children as possible in a breeding season. They'll have 1 brood, and before their young are ready to fend for themselves the female will go off and start another brood, leaving the male to provide for the 1st brood.  July 26,...

This Swainson's Thrush (perhaps due for a renaming) was perched on a fairly heavily lichened branch. Though there are a lot of thrushes around here, American Robins and Eastern Bluebirds are the ones I see the most (though I have met some Hermit Thrushes  on occasion). This is another bird that's not easily identified, mostly because there are other thrushes that look pretty similar. I think you're supposed to identify the Swainson's Thrush based on a little more light coloring around the eyes and a back that's slightly grayer than similar thrushes. In the foreseeable future, you won't see Swainson's Thrushes around because ... they're in line to have their name changed . The American Ornithological Society wants to rename all birds named after people. Though the subject came about due to some birds named after unsavory characters, it was also noticed that while names like Red-winged Blackbird tells you a lot about the bird's appearance [1], name...

Last year in mid-April I met Hermit Thrushes at Washington Valley Park; this year I met (presumably other) Hermit Thrushes at Sourland Mountain Preserve at about the same time of year. My resources ( All About Birds and 2 field guides) suggest I might be seeing them as they migrate through my area [1]; their maps imply their breeding range starts at northern NJ and continues northward [2]. It's a little unfortunate that Hermit Thrushes generally can't be heard without venturing into the woods; they're considered to be some of the best singers out there.  April 14, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 272130180, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) April 14, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 272130437, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] My title of "The Hermits of Sourland" might suggest more permanence than is warranted if the birds are just passing through. [2] It's possible my field guides are getting to be out-of-da...

Here's a pair of Hermit Thrushes I met about a month back. Though some of their relatives like robins and bluebirds are fairly comfortable around human dwellings, the Hermit Thrush tends to live in dense vegetation and away from people, inspiring the "hermit" part of their name. I had to shoot through some vegetation to get these pictures and wonder if I only got them because they were distracted with breeding season soon to start. These birds are noted for an unusual foraging technique called foot quivering . The general idea seems to be that they grasp some vegetation in their foot, shake it around, and see if an insect falls out. This is in contrast to most birds who will poke around in the vegetation with their beaks. April 11, 2022 at Washington Valley Park Photo 189540706, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) April 11, 2022 at Washington Valley Park Photo 189540734, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)