Wander around enough, and you will sooner or later encounter something offbeat. That is what happened yesterday morning when I found a Sage Thrasher.
The Sage Thrasher is a western bird that is one of the rarest birds in Canada and is Red Listed in BC (candidate for extirpation). It is known in very small numbers in the southern Okanagan, but is largely unknown in this forested region. Apparently in the Okanagan, it is closely associated with remnant sagebrush grasslands, but the loss of this habitat due to development seems to have produced increasing losses in these birds.
The Sage Thasher is about the size of a robin.
It uses undulating flight, where part of the time, its wings are beside its body.
The Sage Thrasher does find some insects for food.
Congrats on a great find. Terribly sad that birds are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Lovely! Wish I’d seen it!