Fluttering Small Brown Visitor!??
On the Sunday afternoon following our superstorm Sandy, I was stunned and amazed when a very small brown bird came fluttering/zooming out of my bathroom (where the window was open just 1 inch!) into my very small living room. He fluttered around twice overhead in a circle of the living room and then zoomed into the bedroom toward the south-facing windows. Flapping first against one window, then the other, desperate to get out, I, desperate to help him out, opened both windows wide ASAP, but then he disappeared! I ran back to living room looking for him, but upon returning to the bedroom, found him hopping very briefly in my window box on the fire escape. Then, thank goodness, he flitted off toward the sun and the east.
This bird was so small that I thought he was a baby – but this was not “baby-season!” He would fit easily in the cupped palm of hand. He was very trim, sleek, and elongated, not round in body-shape. He definitely had an insect-eating beak and, I believe, a lighter under-body. Atop was a velvety solid warm brown – not at all speckled or striped or flecked. My friend suggested a “winter wren” but all Googled images show more flecks in the upper back than this bird and this small little bird did not have that wren round shape (more elongated). Plus, I surely would have noticed that conspicuous “wren-tail” so upright! So, I don’t think it was a wren.
On the contrary, so sleek, trim and small it could have been a tuxedo. (This was NOT a chickadee, trust me, I totally know them!) WHAT could this little visitor be??!
Maybe your Keith Michael would know?
Many thanks,
Sheree West
West 12th Street
Keith Michael responds…
Pleased that you thought of me! So often context helps to identify tricky birds, but a bird in one’s living room and bathroom doesn’t help with that. My first thought was of a Brown Creeper. All your excellent observations match except “velvety solid warm brown” back. Your friend’s assessment as a wren might be correct, maybe a Carolina Wren. This has a smoother brown back, a longer body, and doesn’t always have the cocked up tail. Google these two birds to see if either matches. Maybe you did have a long-distance traveler blown north by Sandy!
