Hundreds flock to Morgan County to see rare bird
MORGAN COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — Bird watchers are flocking to a Morgan County home to peep a bird that most likely hasn’t been spotted in Utah in decades.
The Smiths are opening their home in Croydon located at 1375 North 6800 East to birders who want to see a bird called a brambling. Chairs are lined up in front of the windows inside the home for those who stop by to sit down as they wait to see the small bird in the family’s backyard.
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Even if the family isn’t home, they welcome people to their property and have signs showing visitors how to get to the best place to spot the bird.
The brambling picks at seed below the family’s bird feeder but in the blink of an eye, the small black and orange bird disappears into the trees. He only gives the bird watchers short windows of time to get a glimpse.
“He was excited: ‘Lou, it’s a brambling!’” Homeowner Louzie Smith exclaimed. Smith told ABC4 that her husband was looking outside Monday when he noticed a finch that stuck out from the others. A brambling. Smith added: “It’s kind of a fun bird to have.”
What is a brambling? According to the National Audubon Society: “A common finch of Europe and Asia, the Brambling appears regularly in small numbers in Alaska during migration, straying the short distance across the Bering Sea.”
What does a bird watcher look for to identify a brambling? According to the National Audubon Society: “Spring males have sharp pattern, with black head and back, orange-buff scapulars and chest, but females and winter males are plainer. Note white rump, tawny chest, stripes on nape.”
Bramblings have been spotted in different states across the country. However, it’s a sight rarely seen in Utah, and a stray brambling is unlikely to be noticed by someone who isn’t a bird enthusiast.
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“My husband is prolific,” Smith stated. “We will be driving down the road going 65 miles an hour and he can tell me what the bird was that he saw.”
Smith explained that her father-in-law is where the family’s obsession with birds started when he began birding 70 years ago. So, of course, they had to tell him about the visiting brambling.
“They’re intriguing because hardly anyone sees one,” Arnold Smith told ABC4.
Up until Monday, Arnold Smith had never seen one of these birds even though he’s been an avid bird watcher for 70 years and spent thousands of hours birding.
“I was here for like four or five hours,” Arnold Smith said. He lives in Morgan, so he was able to quickly make his way over to his son’s home. “I wanted to get a picture of it, and I did get a pretty good picture of it. It was fun to do.”
According to the Utah Birds Record Committee, there are only two previously recorded sightings of a brambling in the Beehive state. The most recent recorded sighting is from Brigham City in 1985.
Soon after the brambling appeared, the Smiths posted about it online, and within hours, birds weren’t the only thing flocking to their yard.
“This was a life bird as they say,” Josh Kreitzer told ABC4 during his visit to the Smith home. He drove up from Orem to see the brambling after seeing the family’s Facebook post.
“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s an awesome bird.’ And then I thought, ‘Why don’t I just take the day off and come try to see it,” Kreitzer stated.
Kreitzer is not alone. About 100 people made the trip before him. The Smith family told ABC4 that some visitors weren’t lucky and didn’t get a glimpse of the rare bird, even after patiently waiting for hours. However, that was not the case for Kreitzer.
“I zipped up here and within five minutes, I found the bird,” he said. “It took off for a while, so I stuck around for about an hour and got some nice shots. It’s been great.”
Louzie Smith said some visitors were from out of state but were in the area to go skiing. She said the farthest someone traveled to see the bird at their home (that they know of) was a man from Mt. Pleasant in Sanpete County. “We go out birding and like it when we get hospitality so it’s always nice to return the hospitality to others,” Smith added.
Again, the Smiths invite any birder who wants to come out and see the brambling to their property. However, they ask that visitors respect their neighbors’ property and stay within the marked areas. They also ask that visitors park in their driveway and avoid parking in the road.
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