Subject: Re: Siberian Accentor
Date: Jan 29 00:37:43 1997
From: jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca - jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca



Steppie wrote -

> On the fact sheet was
> the accentors Russian name: "Sibirskaya Zavirushka," (phoenetically perhaps
> See-beer-sky-ya zavv-eee-roosh-ka - I like that!!!) and other details of the
> life history of this bird. We learned this was a bird that breeds in river
> valley taiga thickets and occurs from the Urals east to the forests of
> eastern Siberia and winters in north and eastern China. It is the only
> accentor - a small family of Eurasian brds - to reach North America, where
> it has been noted in western Alaska on a few occasions.

Not only western Alaska. Their was a minor invasion of this species into BC
not long ago: a single bird in south Vancouver in Dec. 1994; followed by not
one but a *pair* at a feeder at Tappen, south-central B.C. on the shores of
Shuswap Lake in March 1995. The Tappen situation was much the same scenario
as the Idaho bird - backyard feeder surrounded by garden. Some of the
literature suggests that this species pair-bonds in the winter. Anyway, it
could be that the current Idaho bird is one of these birds, this time
sinking even farther south into the wrong continent.

- Jack



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca