Siberian bird brings birders flocking:The local birding community is atwitter with the discovery of a brown shrike, a small bird of Siberian origins that is exceptionally rare to the Western Hemisphere.
It is the first time a brown shrike has been seen in Humboldt County, according to the records. It's also only the third time one has been seen in California.
Birder Gary Lester saw the bird for the first time about a week ago, and on Monday he was back trying to get a better look. The brown shrike has been hanging around a freshwater marsh in the dunes north of the mouth of the Mad River.
”I'm out looking for the bird right now,” Lester said by cell phone Tuesday morning, “but it's not being very cooperative.”
Since Lester and his wife Lauren saw the bird on Nov. 21, others have spotted glimpses of the shrike. While shrikes are often spotted at the very tips of trees and vegetation looking for insect prey, Lester said, the recent attention may be causing it to start skulking in the brush.
The brown shrike breeds in Central Asia, then migrates south into southeast Asia to overwinter. Its diet is largely insects, which it attacks from high perches.
Only two have ever been seen in California: one in Marin County in 1987 and the other on the Farrallon Islands. Lester saw the Marin County brown shrike and recognized the one visiting Humboldt currently. The local northern shrike is significantly different in color, if not behavior. The northern shrike is white and gray with a long, dark tail, while a brown shrike has similar markings -- but in brown.
Lester said that it's possible that the bird got off track when preparing to migrate south, crossed from the eastern tip of Russia to Alaska, then continued moving south down “the wrong coast.” Since the bird has been spotted, he said, people have been calling from distant locations to inquire about the possibility of seeing the brown shrike.
Lester said that the best way to see the bird is to be patient and calm, to stay far away from the bird and view it through a telescope, scanning the tops of alders and cattails to locate it.
Sean McAllister with Mad River Biologists said the sighting of the brown shrike is comparable to the August 2001 sighting of a common greenshank -- not far away on the Mad River estuary. The greenshank is a migratory shorebird from northern Asia and Europe.
The sighting of the brown shrike is just about as uncommon.
”Just how rare it is may be measured by the scores of birders -- both locals and out-of-towners -- searching for it on a daily basis, come rain, sleet or snow,” McAllister said.
John Driscoll covers natural resources/industry.
