Fieldfare spotted for the first time in Wisconsin
The ordinary can result in the extraordinary. For proof here's a fresh tale, certified and true, from northern Wisconsin.
Tim Oksiuta of Moquah was out birding Feb. 14 in Ashland. Nothing unusual there. Oksiuta, 71 and retired, does it almost every day of the year.
But about 9 a.m. on this Valentine's Day outing at Prentice Park, Oksiuta noticed an odd-looking bird flying with a group of bluejays.
“If it was a bluejay, it was different than any one I'd ever seen,” Oksiuta said. “I wasn't sure what it was, not at all.”
So Oksiuta decided to document the sighting. When it landed in a tree about 100 yards away, Oksiuta picked up his digital camera and took a single photo of the bird.
Later that day he emailed the image to his friend Ryan Brady, a conservation biologist and bird expert with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
That wasn't out of the ordinary, either.
“Tim will often send me pictures, and sometimes it's a common species that's in bad light, but he's like ‘could you take a look at this and let me know what you think it is?'” Brady said.
Brady said Oksiuta finds “all kinds of good stuff,” including a slaty-backed gull (a very rare visitor to Wisconsin) a few years ago.
The Feb. 14 image was a little blurry, Brady said. But it was unlike any Oksiuta had ever sent to his friend. This is where the story turns to the extraordinary.
In fact, no one in Wisconsin history had ever taken a photo of its kind.
It took just a few seconds of looking over the image for Brady to announce: “It's a fieldfare!”
“I told Tim he'd just documented a state record,” Brady said. “What a find.”
The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, the official keeper of state birding records, is reviewing the fieldfare sighting through its normal process but based on photo evidence there is little doubt it will be accepted, said the WSO's Mark Korducki.
The fieldfare is a member of the thrush family. It is native to Europe. While it is occasionally documented in the northeastern U.S. and in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, it is an extremely rare visitor to the interior of North America. The only other sighting in the Midwest was in 1991 in Minnesota, according to eBird, a bird database.
The bird has stayed in the Ashland area for the last week. It is drawing birders from around Wisconsin and the region for a “lifer” opportunity.
Tom Schultz of Green Lake left home at 2 a.m. Monday to try to see the bird. He was joined on the drive north by Jeff Baughman of Cambellsport, Jon Roti Roti of Green Lake and Daryl Tessen of Appleton.
When they arrived about 7:30 a.m. in Ashland the bird had just departed.
Schultz said the group was asking each other why they hadn't left five minutes earlier.
An hour passed when, to their delight, the fieldfare was relocated nearby. They and about 15 others were able to enjoy good views of it through spotting scopes as well as take documentary photos of the bird.
The fieldfare was sighted again Tuesday morning by a group of about 20 people, including Oksiuta. As with his initial sighting, the fieldfare has mostly been seen in the morning and in the presence of bluejays.
Brady said since the bird has been seen for about a week in the same vicinity it is likely finding suitable food sources and roosting habitat.
“Who knows how long it will stick around, but it's sure a treat,” Brady said. “This bird was in Europe at some point and now its in Ashland. Simply fascinating.”
What is a fieldfare?
The fieldfare is member of the thrush family of birds. It is similar to but slightly larger than the American robin.
What does a fieldfare look like?
It has a blue-grey head, a yellow beak with a black tip, brown-gray wings, speckles on the sides of its breast and a white belly, according to the Woodland Trust, a conservation organization based in the United Kingdom. Its posture and silhouette are similar to an American robin.
Where is the fieldfare normally found?
Fieldfares are native to Europe and primarily breed in summer in Scandinavia and migrate south in fall. Many spend the winter in the UK. Sightings in North America are rare and historically clustered on the East Coast.
What do fieldfares eat?
In summer the species primarily eats insects and invertebrates, according to the Woodland Trust. In winter the birds' diet switches to berries and fallen fruit. While in the UK, the fieldfare will seek out and feed on the berries of hawthorn, holly, juniper and yew trees.
What is the origin of the bird’s name?
The name fieldfare is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “feldware” which translates to “traveller of the fields,” according to the Woodland Trust.
How often does Wisconsin record a new bird species?
The fieldfare is the latest in a recent surge of state record birds, according to Mark Korducki, a member of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology and author of a monthly rare bird column for the “Badger Birder,” the organization's newsletter. In the last eight months four species have been documented for the first time in Wisconsin: the flame-colored tanager in April in Cudahy, the American flamingo in September in Port Washington, the ancient murrelet in November in Ashland and now the fieldfare, also in Ashland.
Korducki said it was unusual to have so many new species sighted in the state within a year.