The varied thrush’s orange and smoky blue colors are the perfect camouflage in low forest cover, where the bird forages for bugs and berries. Joe Meche Courtesy to The Bellingham Herald On gray ...

A varied thrush sat on a tree branch on Edgemoor Drive in Lexington, Ky. The bird was first spotted Jan. 16, and it’s been attracting birdwatchers ever since. Katey Buster Photo submitted A songbird ...

THIS FIRST COLUMN for 2017 was retrieved from past columns. This will be the 50th year of the column’s existence and looking back over five decades can be enlightening. A few days before writing this ...

Howard Brunn of Corvallis photographed this varied thrush on March 21, 2009, in his front yard on Northwest 14th Street. “Varied thrush are winter visitors (mostly) to the Willamette Valley,” he says.