Brown-backed Solitaire Photo

Benjamin Van Doren has very kindly allowed me to post one of his photos of the Brown-backed Solitaire he and his Camp Chiricahua companions discovered Thursday. The image is at http://az-birding.com .

The bird was not seen Friday, but was refound this noon in Ramsey Canyon, just a short distance north in the Huachucas. Debate has already started to rage–well, debate has already started to sulk–about the origin of this individual, one of several seen over the years in Texas and Arizona. Up to now, every bird to be formally reported and assessed by a committee has been deemed of suspect provenance; the species is common in captivity in Mexico and south, though it’s beyond me who’d want that song, beautiful as it is in the canyons where it echoes, in their living room.

What I think matters not a whit, but unless someone can convince me that this bird came across the border in a cage and then escaped into the lush canyons of the Huachucas, I’d count it.