An unexpected visitor….

this morning Elias woke me up with excitement in his voice, ‘Momma, Mom, Mommy! There is a new bird in our yard!’  I got up and grabbed my camera to go see.  When I looked at the bird I was shocked as it looked nothing like the little chickadees and robins that we’ve come accustomed to seeing in our yard- this birdie was ‘different’.  Standing about a third of the size of our chickens, with thick stocky legs and feet (unlike a chickadee but more like chicken legs), intriguing markings and little desire to fly away- this bird was worth getting a picture of and finding our bird guide book.  The bird book wasn’t entirely helpful other than telling us what it wasn’t, so I called in more help- I called my friend Val, the resident authority on all things nature.  She listened to my discription and said her guess was grouse or pheasant.  At that point it was just a short google search through images of each and related birds before I found our bird- the Chukar Partridge, national bird of Pakistan!  Native to areas in Europe and Asia but now found many places around the globe this ground nesting bird has a favorite food, the weeds in our yard!  Little Chukar seems quite interested in wanting to be in the coop with the chickens which makes me wonder if its possible that this bird came from a local neighbor (they are sometimes kept for their eggs aparently).  I’ll decide later if I need to post ‘Found Chukar’ posters about the neighborhood, in the mean time he/she seems quite happy to eat our weeds and bed down in the bean bed near the chicken coop.  The kids can now find Pakistan on the world map!  *click on any of the images to see them bigger*