Varied Thrush

Strolling in the Darlin Creek Preserve south of Olympia on 21 October 2020, Erika and I kicked up the Varied Thrush in the top photo. These robin-sized birds breed in the deep, old-growth forests. They venture out of this habitat in the fall and winter, when flocks may gather around food sources—like the Evergreen Huckleberry in our backyard. For us, former Easterners, seeing Varied Thrushes is always exciting, even though they are “fairly common” across much of Washington in appropriate habitat and season (Wahl et al. 2005). On 24 October, we were amazed to see seven Varied Thrushes feeder under a bird bath in our front yard. The thrushes appeared to be feeding, but we are not sure what was out there to eat. There is no feeder in the front—perhaps the birds were scavenging items that other birds dropped after carrying food from the back yard.