Birds and Nature

In addition to the birds that are abundant around Colorado that are ever-present at Lake Pueblo State Park, I have never missed seeing at least one Curve-billed Thrasher if I looked in appropriate habitat. Just saw this one today. SeEtta

I found a Sage Thrasher this week in some 4-winged Salt Brush/Cholla cactus habitat in Canon City where I usually find Curve-billed Thrashers, and it didn't take long to find two of those fairly common birds for my area. The Curve-billed Thrashers are resident while the Sage Thrasher is presumably stopping over during migration. The dark streaking on the underparts of the Sage Thrasher, along with the shorter and straighter bill distinguish it from the Curve-billed Thrasher. I included the photo just above that shows the white tips of the outer tail feathers of this Sage Thrasher--while Curve-billed Thrashers also have white on the ends of their outer tail feathers you can see in the last photo that their tails are slightly rounded. The eyes of these two different Curve-billed Thrashers are clearly orange while the eyes of the Sage Thrasher, though not as clearly visible, tend more to yellow. The Curved-billed Thrashers show definitely decurved long bills with spotted...

I was happy to find this Curve-billed Thrasher on my friend's property east of Canon City. It was near the location that a pair had nested 2 years ago. Since my friend had tore out the very large cholla where the nests (they successfully renested that same year in a nearby cholla) had been located I had not seen any Curve-billed Thrashers in this area until today. However the bird kept closing it's eyelid and it's nictitating membrane. The bottom pic shows the eyelid half closed. There were times that it had it's eyelid totally closed which is not very adaptive with me standing not far away and especially in the daytime (the nictitating membrane would not have been unusual). SeEtta

Curve-billed Thrashers can be found in several areas around Canon City, CO. This one was along Tunnel Drive Road at the far west end of town. As can be seen in the top pic, this area includes tree cholla which is the favored by this species in this area. I enjoy how Curve-billed Thrashers, when one does not intrude in the birds' space, will perch in place as though posing for photos. SeEtta