Sunday, August 23, 2009

365 Theme 109: Foreign


This nondescript little bird is a green-tailed towhee. And I took its picture in a backyard in Collingswood, NJ this past January.

This is only the seventh confirmed sighting of this bird in NJ since they started keeping records. Now while this species does breed in the US it does so west of the Rockies. And in January it should be in South America or perhaps as far north as Mexico. Certainly not visiting a backyard bird feeder in New Jersey. But it hung out there for over a month (first spotted on New Years Day, I took this shot on the 24th).

3 comments:

Chesney said...

Isn't it the best when you find "visitors" in your part of the country? Makes you wonder how this little fella made it this far! Great find!!

Anonymous said...

He's a cutie! Does anyone have a theory as to why this bird was out of its general area and why so far north at that time of year?

Great find. Was this for the bird count?

Anonymous said...

He is a cute little guy! How exciting to get such a good shot of him for identification. I'll have to keep a closer eye on my feeders to see if I can spot any foreigners too.