Boise Winter Birds

One of the benefits of moving from Fairbanks, Alaska to Boise, Idaho is the much greater variety of winter avifauna. There are other benefits, to be sure, but a Christmas Bird Count in Boise will turn up a hundred or more species; in Fairbanks, in a really good year, there might be 25.

In celebration of that, and WC’s gradually improving mobility, here’s a selection of birds WC has photographed in the first six weeks of 2023, with some notes on the photos.

This species is usually hunting in South America right now. But this bird didn’t get the memo and is spending at least a chunk of the winter enjoying the foraging opportunities in South Boise. And he seems to be prospering. So far as is known, this species is rarely in the Intermountain West at all.