Bird Sightings: Hebridean Song Thrush

thewesternisles.co.uk

Wildlife Forum NEW Hebrides bird sightings Bird pictures A - Z Bird pictures: thumbnails Bird ringing Seal and dolphin rescue Difference dolphin porpoise Seal pups Bottlenose dolphin A dolphin rescue BDMLR

Overview Flowering now A - Z wildflowers White wildflowers Yellow wildflowers Pink wildflowers Purple - blue flowers Orchid notes

Stornoway Arch Project June garden

Websites directory Featured sites: Hebridean Baskets Artist Wille Fulton Stornoway Arch Project

Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Hebridean Song Thrush

Hebridean Song Thrush

Turdus philomelos hebridensis

Gaelic: Smeòrach

Photograph © Debbie Bozkurt
Balivanich Beach - Benbecula - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
29th October, 2006

Our Hebridean Song Thrush photographs

Songthrush

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

AKA: Throstle, Mavis.

Turdus philomelos

Migrant/Resident Breeder, Passage/Winter Visitor

UK RED LIST, 1 million pairs (summer) BTO

Distribution: Europe, Asia, (New Zealand & Australia introduced)

Habitat: Woodland (deciduous & coniferous), farmland, scrubland, villages, towns, parks - shy bird likes cover nearby (Nest: tidy mud-lined cup nest bush or tree)

Diet - omnivorous: fruit, snails, winkles, invertebrates (worms prefered!)

Brown upperparts, black-spotted buff underparts. Smaller & browner with smaller spots than much rarer mistlethrush. Repeats it's song phrases

Maximum recorded age 8yrs, average lifespan 3 years

Similar birds: mistlethrush, redwing

Listen to a song thrush (RSPB site)

The song thrush was taken to New Zealand and Australia by settlers in the 18th Century, it thrived in New Zealand and is now one of the commonest garden birds there.

Often you can hear a thrush smashing winkles on a stone at a rocky shore, or shattering snail shells against a stone inland. You may come across this stone which is known as the thrush's "anvil" - the ground around it littered with broken shells.

The male song thrush perches high in trees or on rooftops to sing, where it repeats it's musical phrases two to four times. The most widespread species in the UK sings November to July, our Hebridean race sings from February to June.

An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases, and may mimic other birds, ringing telephones etc.

Other local bird photographs

Debbie's online photo album

back to page top

Home • Contact Webmaster • Advertising