#ABArare – Fieldfare – British Columbia

Christmas Bird Counts are excellent opportunities to find exceptional birds, and this past weekend’s count in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, was another example of that.  Roger and Nan Beardmore with Peter and Sharon Lawless found a Fieldfare (ABA Code 4), 10 km south of Salmon Arm in the south-central part of the province. This is the 2nd BC record and one of only a few records of the species in the western part of the continent. The bird was eating Mountain Ash berries in a flock of American Robins along the road at the corner of Krick Rd and Kernaghan Rd.

Salmon Arm is just east of Kamloops, and just shy of 5 hours northeast of Vancouver. The bird was eating Mountain Ash berries in a flock of American Robins along the road at the corner of Krick Rd and Kernaghan Rd.

A specific map and exceptional photos of the bird can be seen at BC Bird Alert. 

Fieldfare is a nomadic Turdus thrush of northern Europe and Asia. They are regular winter visitors to Iceland, and as such the majority of records for the ABA Area come from Atlantic Canada. They can also come from the other direction, however, and there are also four accounts of Fieldfare in Alaska and one in British Columbia.

While this bird is exceptional, it’s not the first time the species has turned up in the middle of the continent, A record from Minnesota in 1991 and a more recent one from Montana in 2015 illustrates the ability of this species to wander quite widely.

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