The annual four-day Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) will be conducted Feb. 17-20 by bird watchers across the U.S. and Canada.
If I had a rare bird at my feeder, like the painted bunting regularly visiting Grady Bingham's feeder in Ooltewah, I'd make a special effort to report it on the GBBC.
If I had a great photograph of a rare bird reported on the GBBC, like the accompanying photo of the Ooltewah painted bunting taken by Tim Jeffers of East Ridge, Hamilton County, I'd enter the photo in the GBBC photo contest. Tim was the first on the scene to document the rarity with a photograph to prove the rare-in-Tennessee bunting's identity. It's nearly impossible to misidentify a male painted bunting but proof via a picture is always the best way to document a rare bird.
Grady phoned Jan. 23 to report the male painted bunting. First noticed on Jan. 21, the bird was still present as of Feb. 6. This multicolored bird must be the most beautiful bird in Tennessee this winter. Amazingly, last spring Grady's mother, Mabel Hickey of Loudon, told me her son in Ooltewah had a painted bunting at his feeder. The 2011 bunting appeared in mid-March and disappeared later that spring. A painted bunting two years in a row at the same feeder is almost certainly the same bird.
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