A common bird


A common bird
Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur.
Even common birds can be interesting. We take the robin for granted as it always in the yard looking for a meal. We hear them from dawn to dusk, a basic background summer sound that fades from consciousness due to its familiarity.

If we bother to stop and look at our common birds we would see different behaviours, plumages and songs.

This young robin has a mottled breast rather than the full orange/red of a mature bird.

Birds are like people, they can have regional dialects and accents.

When my wife and I had just started birding we were in South Carolina on one of the barrier islands.
We saw a bird that seemed familiar but we couldn't place it. The song was tickling our memories but it wasn’t a song we could identify.
After following the bird for 30 minutes we realized it was an immature robin with an accent, y'all.

Nobody takes 30 minutes to id a robin so it became a Black Headed Red Breasted American Thrush which is a totally different matter.

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