Every winter a handful of Varied Thrushes stray east into Minnesota and beyond from their forest homes in the Pacific Northwest. These visitors feed on fruit. They often hang around a bountiful tree for days. At first glance, Varied Thrushes can be mistaken for robins; they’re often found feeding with robins, another bird that feeds on fruit. But the bold stripe at the top of its breast and the orange slash on the Varied Thrush’s head can’t be missed it you look again. The bird shown here was feeding in a crab apple tree in Roseville. It was photographed in a nearby cottonwood tree.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Bird identification, Bird migration, Bird records, Interesting sightings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.