While birding at Bass Lake Park in Holly Springs NC yesterday, I was lucky enough to spot 6 Hermit Thrushes along the trail within just a few minutes.
This was exciting because I’d never seen so many in one place before!

With that soft reddish buff brown plumage paired with a speckled white breast, these little birds are simply lovely.
Even more so is their incredible song! They sound something like a flute playing an airy melody in which the notes rise and fall with a delicate, yet complex rhythm.
I can’t think of an other species of bird that sings this sweetly 🙂

The Hermit Thrush is a wintertime resident of North Carolina and they generally stick around until mid to late April before departing to their breeding grounds in the northern & western regions of the United States and Canada.
There are even a few year-round resident Hermit Thrushes that nest in the higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains here on the east coast.
Pretty cool huh?

During the colder months their diet includes elderberries, pokeberries, holly berries, serviceberries, grapes, mistletoe berries, as well as any insects, worms or grubs it can find.
Preferring to stay close to stands of Holly trees and other broadleaf conifers, they are best found in the mid to low canopy levels of a forest, tangled brushy thickets near bodies of water or even while scraping through the leaf litter on the ground in search of a meal.
Bass Lake Park is a perfect example of their favored habitat so keep an ear out for them if you ever have a chance to visit!

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the fabulous full frame @canonusa
#5Ds

By far, the friendliest birds encountered last week during the birding tour I hosted in western NC were the Blue-headed Vireos!

This one was watching me carefully from the shadows and I was unable to get a proper view of him. Still, it was a good moment!
A short hike up the mountain a few minutes later yielded more of them which gave me a nice opportunity to grab a portrait one perching on a branch the morning sun.
Check out the second pic in this post to get a closer look at this beauty!

These energetic little birds were relatively easy to find by listening for their loud calls in the woods. The syllables of Blue-headed Vireo songs are set off from one another separated by long rests. Each note is clear and loud, resulting in a ringing out effect which may be heard for very long distance echoing through the trees.
Their songs are successive pattern of rising and falling notes, sometimes with regular alternation, as if the bird asks a question, then answers itself thus earning the nickname of the “question-and-answer bird”.

Blue-headed Vireos prefer evergreen forests with spruce, fir, hemlock, and pine, or conifers. They may also be spotted foraging for a six or eight legged meal in deciduous growth that may be made up of alder and willow shrubs as under story, or that include poplar, birch, and/or maple trees in varying numbers.

They are found throughout North Carolina year round but primarily breed in the mountains during the summer while spending the winter months in the southeastern part of the state.
When spring migration gets underway once again in April, they may also be found in greater numbers in the Piedmont region as they make their way north & west out of their southern wintering grounds .
🙂

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the fabulous full frame SLR, the @canonusa
#5Ds