Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 34
Townsend's Solitaire
Louis Agassiz Fuertes, 1907
Bird

Townsend's Solitaire

Myadestes townsendi
Thrushes and Allies (Turdidae)
Passage migrant. Expected here roughly Mar to May.
Field marks
A slim, plain grey thrush with a white eye-ring, buff wing patches and white outer tail feathers; perches bolt upright on a treetop like a flycatcher that has been told to sit up straight.
Male & female
Alike.
Voice
A single clear, bell-like 'eek' whistle repeated for hours in winter, and a long, rich, warbling song.
Diet
Insects in summer; in winter almost entirely juniper berries, from a patch it defends with great seriousness.
Habitat
Mountain conifer forest in summer; lower slopes and juniper country in winter.
Nesting
On the ground in a bank, among roots or on a ledge; 3–5 eggs.
Size
8–9½ in long, about 1¼ oz: a golf ball, grey, sitting very upright on a treetop.

A mountain bird that drifts to the lowlands in autumn, so a late-October solitaire is right on schedule.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 5 calls on 2 days, first Oct 29, last Oct 31

1200:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 0 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 0 calls08:00 — 2 calls09:00 — 0 calls910:00 — 0 calls11:00 — 0 calls12:00 — 0 calls1213:00 — 0 calls14:00 — 1 calls15:00 — 0 calls1516:00 — 0 calls17:00 — 1 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 0 calls20:00 — 1 calls21:00 — 0 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 0 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
24Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 0 callsOct 29 — 1 callsOct 30 — 0 callsOct 31 — 4 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 31 8:13 pm · 99% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 8:00 am · 88% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

Townsend's solitaire is a medium-sized thrush, the only solitaire native to America north of Mexico.
From Wikipedia, "Townsend's solitaire", CC BY-SA 4.0.