We saw a brief discussion on the listservs this morning about Varied Thrush, and thought we'd take a closer look at this shy forest resident. While we often talk of spring migration as a time to welcome birds from the south, this is a time when, for the most part, we bid the Varied Thrush goodbye as it heads to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska to breed. Fear not, we'll see them again come winter. If you look at the maps below, we're still seeing the bird in California (though mostly in the north). As we get into May and June, the bird is going to be way further north. (photo by USFWS)

Here's an eBird map of Varied Thrush sightings from the first few weeks of March, showing a good distribution along the Northern California coasts and Pacific Northwest. Not much happening in Alaska:

And here's what it looked like in May of last year, showing the bird getting fully into Alaska: