It’s great to see and hear totally new birds when abroad. In America they have a robin too, but it apart from its amber chest it doesn’t look anything like our robin. It has a black back and is the size of a thrush. However it is vocal and happy to pose for photographs just like our UK robin. We saw and heard lots of blackbirds, red winged ones. They make loud and very distinctive clinking sounds and a “conk-la ree” call.
I noticed Canada geese seemed to be the more common type of goose found around the lakes in and around Denver. It was lovely to see this family on Arbor Lake.
Cormorants were common too, but I got a surprise seeing this American white pelican! It is a migrant visitor. The protrusion on its beak is to show it’s ready to breed. Once it has found a partner this “caruncle” will drop off.
We saw jays, but they too looked different to the ones at home. This is a blue jay.
There were also steller’s jays which had punky black crests.
Some birds looked tropical to us. For example the western tanager which is bright yellow and with a red head.
The evening grosbeak was very striking too.
High up on scrubland above a deep gorge I found this bird in its nest. It is a blue grey gnat catcher.
Here is one out in the open.
This bird with the Johnny Rotten hairdo is a green tailed towhee.
The spotted towhee seemed to be more common around suburbs.
I loved seeing this blue swallow next to the River Deschutes in the town of Bend.
It was walking along this river that I saw this House Finch looking at me as if to say, “hmm, nice camera missus.”
These are only a few of the many different birds seen on our trip. I’ve not included a photo of a song sparrow or the white crowned sparrow. Their songs were the background soundtrack to our Oregon stay. At first I enjoyed hearing them but once home I was glad to hear our melodic blackbirds again. Do google the sound of a red winged blackbird, that’s so different from here in UK.
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 