A New Bird

I have mentioned before that I do not have an actual bird feeder at my Colorado home. The reason is we have a large bear population in this area. So, I put out a few bread crumbs on a deck post every morning. ...and the birds are usually waiting for me.

 I have pictured the Steller Jay before. Mainly because it is about the only bird that hangs out at this altitude. These guys are actually over achievers, since the bird book says they usually live between 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level, and we are closer to 9,000 feet.So, I was surprised this morning when I saw someone different creeping up.

He was looking all around to make sure it was safe.

He got a wee bit braver an crept even closer, giving me a good profile.

These were taken through a probably not too clean window, sorry.

He finally made the leap, and gave me a look at his tail feathers. So, I got out the bird book

 click on photo to enlarge

The only bird that came close was this Clark's Nutcracker (on the left). He grows to abut 12" and yes this bird looked large, and he lives usually in a conifer forest......yep

I am thinking I can check this one off. (keeping count in my bird book).

Unless you think it is something else?