The tail color thing applies to eastern/boreal HEWA and eastern /boreal
SWTH(Olive-backed Thrush). . In northern California and western Oregon there
are Hermits with very dull hind ends and up and down the Pacific Slope the
Swsinson's Thrushes belong to the Russet-backed group. As the name suggests, a
bright, reddish hue is common on many(but not all) of those SWTH backsides.
Field guides have been promoting this half myth for something like a century
now. I have noted this time of year that some Hermit Thrushes l see are
cool, grayish, while others are much warmer, showing lots of bright buff on
the upper chest and cheeks. When someone reported two SWTH on the Coquille CBC
about ten years ago, then compiler Alan Contreras asked "Do you have the
bodies?" Pretty much my favorite moment in countdowns, and l attended my first
in 1971. Due to technical ineptness l am sending the definitive
identifying mark in a separate mail. November 9 is a fall date in my book. I'm
not sure there are any incontrovertible SWTH detected in Oregon in December.
The entire Catharus group is more problematic than field guides admit, the
cryptogulls of passerine existence. The taxonomy of this group is, as with
gulls, far from resolved. Note the not too ancient splitting of Gray-cheeked,
resulting in Bicknell's Thrush. More splits on the way in a bush near you. Sent
from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: "Paul T. Sullivan"
<paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: 12/15/21 9:42 PM (GMT-08:00) To: OBOL
<obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [obol] Re: Catharus thrushes Between these two
emails (below) there must have been a bunch of information shared. It didn’t
appear here on OBOL. So let me ask: Since when is tail color NOT definitive in
distinguishing Hermit Thrush from other thrushes???? If not that, then what?
We’ve had discussions about winter putative Swainson’s Thrushes in the past,
and I still have not seen a clear exposition of the story. I believe it
involves subspecies of each species, but I’ve never seen it laid out clearly.
For example:Hermit thrushes have (say 4) subspecies1234 Swainson’s thrushes
have (say 3) subspecies123 And subspecies #2 of Swainson’s Thrush looks almost
the same as subspecies #3 of Hermit Thrush. Paul Sullivan OregonDate: 12/15
5:15 PMFrom: Christine Maack <cmaackster...>Subject: [obol] Catharus
thrushesThanks for all the information about hermit thrushes in Oregon. Now
that Ican't use tail color as definitive, what are good ways to
distinguishbetween hermit and Swainsons (in season)?ChrisOregonDate: 12/14
12:30 PMFrom: Christine Maack <cmaackster...>Subject: [obol] Mystery thrushGot
a good look at a catharus thrush under someone's feeder this morning.Did not
have any rufous in the tail and had pale legs. Could have been aSwainson's or a
Gray-cheeked. Which is more likely?Chris
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