Little Holiday Miracle: Varied Thrush

This gallery contains 2 photos. One of my favourite birds to photograph, and one of the most elusive. This beautiful male Varied Thrush had a head-on collision with a window, just a few days before Christmas. Fortunately, he was only stunned, and roosted in the cherry tree for a few moments before flying off — giving me precious moments (and exactly 200 photographs) to capture his elusive beauty from the upper floor sunroom, some 15 feet away.

This is one of two (the other is a female with muted brown and orange hues) Varied Thrushes who have returned to the backyard (after spending the summer and fall elsewhere) to brighten up our shorter winter days! This is also the first year that I have seen them munching on the cotoneaster berries that grow along the fence in the backyard. Photographed on December 21.