Northern mockingbird. Your bird has white wing patches versus the buffy patches of a solitaire and also no white eyering as a solitaire has. The bill of your bird is curved and longer than a solitaire as well.
My wife and I just came back from Carson City, NV where I took these pictures at a friend’s house. First thoughts were a Clarks Nutcracker or a Gray Jay, but it doesn’t seem to quite match either. Juvenile
Clarks? The fires in the Sierras have driven a lot of birds outside their normal areas, so this bird may be passing through.
What is it with hip joints and birding? I thought I had put in enough weekly miles (uphill) for sufficient weight bearing exercise but no, says latest scan. Good luck to all you fellow commiserants.
In other news, gathering of common golden eyes, and a parent juvenile pair of bald eagles practicing touch and goes at Black canyon reservoir tonight.
Congratulations! So funny I also sat & looked for redpolls today & my friend Kathy E brought me a chair (no redpolls) but the funniest thing is that I am also having a hip replacement on Nov 30…quite the coincidences…
While bicycling today in the city of Mountain Home, I stopped as I always do to study a bird feeding station, and by golly there was a male Evening Grosbeak consuming sunflower hearts. The same feeding station (just off S 5th West St.) also had a flock of Pine Siskins present.
Alan Gregory in Mountain Home
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Alan C Gregory Lt. Col., USAF, Ret. Mountain Home, ID
Member, Idaho Native Plant Society
Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association, life member
Yesterday, it was Common Redpolls. Today, it was a flock of about 50 Bohemian Waxwings. Over a couple of hours, the flock completely stripped every remaining fruit from a crabapple tree. When finished, wouldn’t say the waxwings were “drunk”, just very contented! They flew up to uppermost branches of a nearby golden willow & absorbed the sun for another hour or so, before taking off.
Between, the redpolls, crossbills &, now waxwings, definitely shaping up to be a good “irruption” winter of some rarities. Good number of Townsend’s Solitaires have appeared in Snake River Bottoms for the winter, as well. There’s a bumper crop of Rocky Mtn Juniper berries to feed on.
Brian Carrigan Blackfoot
Home of Idaho Birding and the Idaho Bird Records Committee
