This Veery is a forest thrush & Yard-Lifer for our urban yard deep in metro-Atlanta.
Veeries are long-distance migrants. They spend the summer in the forests of Canada & northern U.S. (& a few at the highest elevations of the southern Appalachian Mts) & winter in central and southern Brazil.
To make this trip, they can fly up 160 miles in a night at altitudes above 6,300′ (1.2 miles).
Their wings are very efficient and carry them over these long transoceanic routes. And manage to do this on relatively small stores of fat.
I’d like to think that the work to keep our much of our yard natural provided a familiar & safe stopover for this intercontinental traveler.
They need the help. Populations have declined .6%\yr, 30% total, since the mid-1960s. The primary culprit? Yep. Habitat loss in their breeding, wintering, and needed stopovers.
