This bird showed up at around 4pm this afternoon. When I first spotted him, he was really rooting in the soil near the base of the bird feeder. I had never seen any of the “usual suspects” exhibiting this behavior. It was slightly larger than a cardinal and with the long bill I knew that it wasn’t a bird I had seen previously. I was inside doing dishes at the time, and I wasn’t able to get outside without the Brown Thrasher flying off. He came back 2 other times. Steve had an opportunity to see him also. Every time I would open the door, he would fly away nearly immediately. He was really pecking away at the soil, presumably in search of insects. I don’t know that he ate much of our seed, but he was definitely feeding on the insects at the base of the feeder. It was really interesting to see him do this. I haven’t ever seen one of these birds before in the Backyard. If they have been around before, it must have been during high traffic times and he got overlooked. Here are the other photos I snapped from the window.
