Beautiful Woodland Colours

With retinas full of Hawk Owl we retired to the best Taiga Bird Cabin you have ever seen! 2 species very quickly in evidence (and much wanted) were the Siberian Jay and Siberian Tit. There were several of each to go around. What was very cool and rather expected was the way the plumage colours of both these species actually blend beautifully with the colours of wood and bark around them. The match of the colours on the Siberian Jay is particularly striking. Don’t believe me? have a look (not sure you will see that in a field guide!):

Siberian Jay

(this lovely one is by Tormod A. The rest are mine)

The snow was melting; the cause of this ones wet look in the less than freezing conditions.

only in the snow did they look more conspicuous

Siberian Tit

The old world counterpart of the North American ‘Boreal Chickadee’, Siberian Tit looks very similar but with whiter rear cheeks and white on fringes of some flight feathers. Siberian Tit is perhaps the ultimate Taiga dweller ranging from here, across Siberia to Alaska and NW Canada, where the ranges of both species overlap. Respect! According to the Tit, Nuthatches and Treecreepers book (Harrap and Quinn)- no systematic studies done on voices of the 2 species. Anything changed since then I wonder?