Bird misidentified - Chris Blomme

Re: Photo “An apple a day,” which appeared in the Jan. 17 edition of Northern Life.

Thank you to Chris Blomme and the many others who informed us of our error.

We always enjoy reading your paper and particularly viewing your feature photo of the week. We noticed the bird in this week’s fantastic picture by Carol Fedat was unfortunately misidentified.

The caption suggests it is a pine grosbeak, but the inverted bird reaching for a crab apple is actually a Bohemian waxwing.

This species has inundated the City of Greater Sudbury and outlying areas this winter. It is a far northern and western species that is not seen every winter in our area.

The Sudbury Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 22 counted 838 individual birds in the count circle. Most birds can be identified by field marks. Bohemian waxwings are grey to tan coloured robin-sized birds with a prominent crest.

The photo shows the rich red-brown under tail coverts and the white marks on the wing distinguish the species from the cedar waxwing, a summer resident here.

Your paper has published pictures of pine grosbeaks as well, as they are very colourful birds. Males are robin-sized, blunt nosed and rosy red in colour.

The immature and females are grey with subtle olive greens and oranges around the head, depending on sex.

Both the Bohemian waxwing and the pine grosbeak will fly in flocks and this time of the year both species will capitalize on the winter fruits of mountain ash, crab apple and the keys of Manitoba maple, thus their visits to our cities.

Oh yes, feeders help as well.

Chris Blomme
Sudbury Ornithological Society