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A couple of days ago I posted a gallery of images of the UK’s largest resident thrush - the MIstle Thrush. Here by way of comparison (and because it’s such a beautiful bird anyway) is another thrush, the Fieldfare Turdus pilaris. Unlike the Mistle Thrush, which it resembles in size and shape (distant flying birds [...]

At the bottom of my garden here in Great Chalfield is a group of Yew trees. I have no idea if these lovely trees normally fruit so heavily as I’ve only been here since the summer, but whether in response to the coming cold weather or not every branch has been laden with small red [...]

A couple of days ago a photograph (reproduced below) was sent into the “Clinic” for identification. It was taken in the UK and showed an odd-looking, mottled thrush-like bird but was clearly not something that the photographer was used to seeing. Co-incidentally, but understandably when you realise what the species is, I had an almost [...]

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise. Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see.  All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to [...]

I’m just back in the UK after an excellent day’s birding with a friend and colleague, Simon Tickle, in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, a 1000 acre ‘urban oasis’ made up of (primarily second and third growth) Douglas-fir, Western Red cedar, Western Hemlock, and Sitka Spruce trees. An 8.8 kilometre (5.5 mile) seawall path circles the park, [...]

Back in Chicago a little over five months since I was last here - and back at Montrose Point, home of the ‘Magic Hedge’ and a magnet for both birds and birders. When I was here in May of course I was looking for migrant warblers and sparrows: this time I was on a search [...]

Okay, so you’ve got two days in Johannesburg, the weather is gorgeous, the birding excellent - what (if you were me) would you do: stay nearby and have a relaxed time visiting reliably excellent sites like Suikerbosrand or Marievale, or rent a car and drive to Memel, a place you know very little about on [...]

A hybrid thrush has been found on Stratton Mountain in Vermont.  The bird, which was determined through DNA analysis to be part Bicknell’s Thrush and part Veery, was found by researchers with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies who were studying Bicknell’s Thrush on the breeding grounds.  It was first noticed by a researcher who heard [...]

This past Monday I burned one of my many vacation days in order to extend my stay upstate long enough for me to hike up a mountain.  Like last year’s epic adventure up Wakely Mountain with Mike, Will and Patrick, this hike’s main goal was to track down a Bicknell’s Thrush, the seldom-seen bird that [...]

Mountain Thrush Turdus abyssinicus or Olive Thrush Turdus olivaceus abyssinicus
Aberdare Mountains, Kenya
 
The thrushes found in the highlands of Kenya are either considered a separate species, Mountain Thrush (eg ‘Birds of Africa south of the Sahara’, Sinclair and Ryan, Struik), or as a northern race of Olive Thrush (’Thrushes’, Hathaway et al, Helm). Either way abyssinicus [...]

A great question was sent into the 10,000 Birds Clinic today that has triggered off a train of thoughts and that led inevitably to this post. The questioner, Kathy, sent in three photos of a rather scruffy bird she’d found by her Toronto home which she thought she could identify but wasn’t 100% sure. Somewhat [...]

When I first started birding long, long ago (how long? pre-computer, but post the printed word thankfully) one of the birds that got me firmly and eternally hooked was a species that we here in the UK know as “the robin”. A small, rotund, fiery bundle of aggression and sweet song, the European Robin Erithacus [...]

The Japanese, so I’ve discovered, are REALLY into New Year. I’m a bit surprised given that the dates for the New Year are based around the Gregorian calendar rather than Moon/Sun phases which is more usual in the Far East. Surprised or not, what this means in practical terms is that the little [...]

Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina
Central Park, NY. 19 October 2007

The Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina breeds across most of eastern North America, ranging from the panhandle of Florida northward to southern Canada. The species generally reaches its western limit at the eastern edge of the Great Plains, although it can be found breeding along the Missouri River [...]

When I was in Central Park yesterday I saw a thrush that - at the time - confused me: Mike had already gone home so I couldn’t confer with him, and now that I’ve had a look at the photos I manged to grab before it disappeared and have had a chance to read through [...]

You’ve probably already read about our trip to see the Bicknell’s Thrush here, here and here but you might want to see some great pics of the hard-to-find bird, including a ringed one, here.

Bicknell’s Thrush is truly a birder’s bird. Not only is this bird’s picture next to the dictionary definition of the word “drab” but it looks exactly like another more, easily accessible species. The only way to reliably differentiate Bicknell’s from its close relative, Gray-cheeked Thrush, short of genetic testing, is to hear it sing. To [...]

Identity theft occurs with astonishing regularity in the avian world where all too often, species share so many overlapping traits as to appear virtually indistinguishable. Empidonax flycatchers are an excellent example of this phenomenon in North America, as are scaup. More esoteric, but no more simplistic, is the difference between Gray-cheeked and Bicknell’s [...]

Groundscraper Thrush Psophocichla litsipsirupa
South Africa, March 2007

Blessed with one of the most melodious sounding specific descriptors in ornithology (the onomatopoeic litsitsirupa) the Groundscraper Thrush is an African endemic found in eastern and southern Africa from Eritrea south to the Cape.

Despite looking superficially like a European Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus, this is a peculiarly short-tailed and [...]

American Robin Turdus migratorius
North America. Various dates 2004/05/06
 
The most abundant and widespread North American thrush, American Robins are - as the name suggests - native to the Nearctic region. They occur year-round in southern Canada from Newfoundland to British Columbia, throughout most of the United States and along the Sierra Madre into southern Mexico. They [...]