I feel like I know a lot more about those little furballs from Brad’s last post. Adorable little ears, frisky tails, cute whiskers and a joy to observe … IN OTHER PEOPLE’S yards! Hehehe. We have the basic Eastern Chipmunk variety out here in the country and to be honest, damn annoying. They just cost me several thousands of dollars thanks to under-digging my steps and attached concrete slab. They also drive my dogs crazy when they pop out of a hole, give them the finger, wait for them to get all worked up, turn and wiggle their tan ass at them and then run like cowards back down their hole. One of these days (when Linda isn’t looking) I’m going to give Ruger the green light .. or should I say “tan” light.. and see how they like being chased by a 19.5 mph bloodthirsty, merciless Toy Poodle. I still need to assess the punishment I’d get from Linda if she found out. While I ponder that, how about we talk about a much more benign tan creature.
Hit the jump to find out more about our clay colored feathered friend.
For those that have not had the chance to bird Southern Texas or down through Central America, today’s subject is the Clay-Colored Thrush. Well, that is the current name as it has previously been referenced as the Clay-Colored Robin. Admittedly, I do like the name given by the Costa Ricans to their national bird – Yigüirro, but that may be due to the 3 years of Spanish I took in high school because the college I was going to attend required a second language – little did I know they accepted “programming” languages – Maldita Sea!
This is is not the first time the Clay-Colored has been featured here at Intrigued. It made its debut back in March 2018 from my first encounter ever at The Valley Nature Birding Center in Weslaco, TX (link here). As a note, we no longer plan on visiting that birding location unless they have rare sightings. It is a nice urban birding location with an abundance of birds, but it is extremely frustrating for large glass photographers due to the dense vegetation. After a while, The Beast just gives up and heads for the nearest plate of waffles. Luckily the Clay-Colored is fairly abundant along the Rio Grande Valley.
These first three shots come from Estero Llano Grande State Park, which is also located near Weslaco, TX. I have talked at great length in previous posts on this incredible spot – my top place in the RGV to bird by far. Incredible volunteers, no issues getting clean shots at Estero and you will often find the residents are more than willing to pose for the paparazzi. This particular specimen was hanging out at the feeder area in the Tropical Area of the park – previously the Lakeview Trailer Park and where the former home of whom I believe is one of the earliest “Big Year” winners is located. I need to get back there and have a volunteer remind me again of that individual’s name – kicking myself I can’t remember it or locate it on the web.
That was some of my “good” shots of the Clay-Colored from our Texas trip back in January of 2023. Now we move on to the “wet” shots.
I felt really bad for this particular specimen. It was absolutely soaked from a downpour that occurred right before we arrived. Thankfully they are primarily ground birds so it could utilize the “dry time” looking for some tasty invertebrates. According to Wikipedia, they have developed an affinity for ant columns looking for anything startled along their march. Note, for the unaware, I highly recommend avoiding the Red Imported Fire Ant family that hang out in southern Texas. Whenever we are in the area and go to take the dogs out, Benji lifts up his front paw and points to it with a “Hell No” expression. He managed to step right into a mass of them while visiting Laguna Atascosa and NEVER lets us forget.
This “wet look” specimen was found at Quinta Mazatlan located in McAllen, TX. This is another what I call “urban” birding hotspots. It is absolutely beautiful there and probably one of the most enjoyable walks you will have while birding. Not only do they have a tremendous amount of varied species, they tend to get one or two rarities there every year. Adding to the ambiance is the 1930s Spanish Revival Estate that serves as their visitor/event center and my favorite part, the amazing multitude of birds, animals, insects, etc. statues they have scattered throughout the area. There is a small fee to visit, but in my opinion worth it for the enjoyment you will assuredly receive. Based on the look this wet mess of a bird gave me, you might want to wait out any downpours looking through the hacienda ha.
Okay, if you are still with me, it is time for the “What the Heck” portion of the post. Going through the massive amount of pictures we take on our Texas trip is quite the undertaking. There is a reason it takes months…and in some cases multiple years to get the spoils processed and ready for viewing on the blog. Processing is usually marathon sessions that takes me through a large number of species. Every once in a while I stumble on a surprise, usually resulting from a mis-ID in the field. This is one of those cases – take a look at this specimen. Feel free to compare/contrast it with the specimens earlier in the post.
You probably immediately noticed the similarity in feather coloring, varying shades of tan and brown with the predominantly buffy breast. Like me, on first observation you might have categorized this into the Clay-Colored Thrush family. Helped, I am sure, by the fact that is the theme of today’s post ha. Back when I processed these last two images, I immediately ID’d it and exported it out to the species folder with the rest of the Texas Clays. It wasn’t until I was preparing this post that something caught my attention and stopped me in my tracks.
Did the eye coloring, or more specifically, the eye-ring draw your attention perhaps? That is not a characteristic feature of the Clay-Colored. They have a well-blended, almost hard to detect buffy eye-ring. This one had a rather brilliant yellow coloring that matched the typical yellowing on the Thrush family bills. That eye took me down hours and hours of research only to come up without a definitive answer. Three rare options were at the top of the possibilities list – the White-Throated Thrush (link here), The Spectacled Thrush (link here) and the Ecuadorian Thrush (link here). None are native to the area. The White-Throated was probably closest with pushes up into Northern Mexico and the other two significantly deeper into Central/South America. I was leaning to ruling out the Spectacled as those eye-rings are thick. The Intrigued bird ID department was also unsure. Ended up having Linda submit the shots to the RGV Birding Facebook page and asking “What up?” Received a lot of varying responses with the consensus being a hybrid between a Clay-Colored and a White-Throated. One was apparently reported around that timeframe (note, I was unable to verify that on my own, so trusting the responders). I am comfortable with that ID, although I would have preferred a pure species for my checklist – yeah, I’m a numbers whore hehehe.
Well, this has turned out to be a rather long post, apologies for that. Hopefully you enjoyed seeing the Thrush finds and learning about a couple of good birding spots in the Rio Grande Valley area. Feliz observación de aves.
Life Intrigued 