Thesong thrush (Turdus philomelos) is athrush that breeds across the WestPalearctic. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has four recognisedsubspecies. Its distinctivesong, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.
The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partiallymigratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East; it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia. Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices.
The song thrush builds a neat mud-linedcup nest in a bush or tree and lays four to five dark-spotted blueeggs. It isomnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an "anvil" on which to break open the shells ofsnails. Like other perching birds (passerines), it is affected by external and internalparasites and is vulnerable topredation bycats andbirds of prey.
The song thrush was described byGermanornithologistChristian Ludwig Brehm in 1831, and still bears its originalscientific name,Turdus philomelos.[3] The generic name,Turdus, is theLatin forthrush, and the specific epithet refers to a character inGreek mythology,Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird. Her name is derived from theAncient GreekΦιλοphilo- (loving), andμέλοςmelos (song).[4] The dialect namesthrostle andmavis both meanthrush, being related to the Germandrossel and Frenchmauvis respectively.[5]Throstle dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used byChaucer in theParliament of Fowls.[6] Mavis is derived viaMiddle Englishmavys andOld Frenchmauvis fromMiddle Bretonmilhuyt meaning "thrush".[7] Mavis (Μαβής) can also mean "purple" inGreek.[8]
A parent feeding chicks in their nest in a New Zealand garden
A molecular study indicated that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumagedmistle thrush (T. viscivorus) andChinese thrush (T. mupinensis); these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage ofTurdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa. They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as theblackbird (T. merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised theCanary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.[9][10]
T. p. clarkei, described by German zoologistErnst Hartert in 1909, and named afterWilliam Eagle Clarke, breeds in the rest ofGreat Britain andIreland and on mainland Europe inFrance,Belgium, theNetherlands and possibly somewhat further east. It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts. It is a partial migrant with some birds wintering in southern France andIberia. This formintergrades with the nominate subspecies in central Europe, and withT. p. hebridensis in theInner Hebrides and western Scotland, and in these areas birds show intermediate characteristics.[12] Finally,T. p. nataliae, described by the RussianSergei Buturlin in 1929, occurs in the east of the range inSiberia east of the Ural Mountains.[11]
The song thrush (as represented by the nominate subspeciesT. p. philomelos) is 20 to 23.5 centimetres (7+3⁄4 to9+1⁄4 inches) in length and weighs50 to 107 grams (1+3⁄4 to3+3⁄4 ounces). The sexes are similar, with plain brown backs and neatly black-spotted cream or yellow-buff underparts, becoming paler on the belly. The underwing is warm yellow, the bill is yellowish and the legs and feet are pink. The upperparts of this species become colder in tone from west to east across the breeding range fromSweden to Siberia. The juvenile resembles the adult, but has buff or orange streaks on the back and wingcoverts.[12]
The most similar European thrush species is theredwing (T. iliacus), but that bird has a strong whitesupercilium, red flanks, and shows a red underwing in flight. Themistle thrush (T. viscivorus) is much larger and has white tail corners, and theChinese thrush (T. mupinensis), although much more similar in plumage, has black face markings and does not overlap in range.[12]
The song thrush has a short, sharptsip call, replaced on migration by a thin highseep, similar to the redwing's call but shorter. The alarm call is achook-chook becoming shorter and more strident with increasing danger. The male's song, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches, is a loud clear run of musical phrases, repeated two to four times,filip filip filip codidio codidio quitquiquit tittit tittit tereret tereret tereret, and interspersed with grating notes and mimicry. It is given mainly from February to June by the Outer Hebridean race, but from November to July by the more widespread subspecies.[12] For its weight, this species has one of the loudest bird calls.[13]
An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases,[14] many copied from its parents and neighbouring birds. Mimicry may include the imitation of man-made items like telephones,[15] and the song thrush will also repeat the calls of captive birds, including exotics such as thewhite-faced whistling duck.[12]
The song thrush breeds in most of Europe (although not in the greater part ofIberia, lowland Italy or southern Greece), and across Ukraine and Russia almost toLake Baikal. It reaches to 75°N in Norway, but only to about 60°N in Siberia. Birds fromScandinavia,Eastern Europe and Russia winter around theMediterranean, North Africa and theMiddle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.[12] The song thrush has been sighted in North America as a rarevagrant, with records fromQuebec in Canada,Greenland, as well as inAlaska,California, andWashington in the United States.[16][17][18][19][20] It has also been sighted in various Atlantic islands andWest Africa.[12] In South America, there is a record of a song thrush from Colombia.[21]
In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes. Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.[22]
Birds of the subspeciesT. p. clarkei were introduced to New Zealand and Australia byacclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.[23][24] In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as theKermadecs,Chatham andAuckland Islands.[25] Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives aroundMelbourne.[26] In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species,[27] and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.[28] As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.[29]
The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks. It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching 2,200 metres (7,200 feet) in Switzerland. The island subspeciesT. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, includingheathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.[12]
In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat. In one English study, only 3.5% ofterritories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area. The remaining nests were in woodlands (1% of total area).[30]
The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided;[31] however, the island subspeciesT. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.[12]
The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird,fieldfare, redwing anddark-throated thrush.[12] Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.[31]
This is amonogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns. In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.[31]
During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action. It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings (as occurs in the migration of large soaring birds), and calls frequently to maintain contact.[12] Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December. However, hard weather may force further movement. Return migration varies between mid-February around theMediterranean to May in northern Sweden and centralSiberia.[12]
The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground. She lays four or five bright glossy blueeggs which are lightly spotted with black or purple;[12] they are typically2.7 cm × 2.0 cm (1+1⁄8 in × 3⁄4 in) size and weigh6.0 g (3⁄16 oz), of which 6% is shell.[4] The female incubates the eggs alone for 10–17 days, and after hatching a similar time elapses until the young fledge. Two or three broods in a year is normal, although only one may be raised in the north of the range.[12] On average, 54.6% of British juveniles survive the first year of life, and the adult annual survival rate is 62.2%. The typical lifespan is three years, but the maximum recorded age is 10 years 8 months.[4]The song thrush is occasionally a host ofparasiticcuckoos, such as thecommon cuckoo, but this is very rare because the thrush recognizes the cuckoo'snon-mimetic eggs.[32] However, the song thrush does not demonstrate the same aggression toward the adult cuckoo that is shown by theblackbird.[33] The introduced birds in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, have, over the past 130 years, retained the ability to recognise and reject non-mimetic eggs.[34]
Adult birds may be killed bycats,little owls andsparrowhawks, and eggs and nestlings are taken bymagpies,jays, and, where present,grey squirrels.[35][36][37] As with other passerine birds, parasites are common, and include endoparasites, such as thenematodeSplendidofilaria (Avifilaria) mavis whose specific namemavis derives from this thrush.[38] A Russian study of blood parasites showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularlyHaemoproteus andTrypanosoma.[39]Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borneencephalitis in forested areas of central andeastern Europe and Russia,[40] and, more widely,Borreliabacteria.[41] Some species ofBorrelia causeLyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.[42]
The song thrush isomnivorous, eating a wide range ofinvertebrates, especiallyearthworms andsnails, as well as soft fruit andberries. Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.[12]
Land snails are an especially important food item when drought or hard weather makes it hard to find other food. The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an "anvil" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.[31] Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails.[43] The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms,slugs, snails andinsectlarvae.[12]
Thegrove snail (Cepaea nemoralis) is regularly eaten by the song thrush, and itspolymorphic shell patterns have been suggested as evolutionary responses to reduce predation;[44] however, song thrushes may not be the only selective force involved.[45]
The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres (4 million square miles), and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.[1]
In the westernPalaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern (i.e., a reduction in numbers of more than 30% in ten years or three generations) and theIUCN Red List categorises this species as of "Least Concern".[1] In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included inregional Red Lists.[31][46] The decreases are greatest in farmlands (73% since the mid-1970s) and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.[6] The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides. These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.[47] In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.[37] In urban areas, some thrushes arekilled while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.[48]
The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poetRobert Browning in his poemHome Thoughts, from Abroad:
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine carelessrapture![49]
The song also inspired the nineteenth-century British writerThomas Hardy, who spoke inDarkling Thrush of the bird's "full-hearted song evensong/Of joy illimited",[50] but twentieth-century British poetTed Hughes inThrushes concentrated on its hunting prowess: "Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second".[51] Nineteenth-century Welsh poetEdward Thomas wrote 15 poems concerning blackbirds or thrushes, includingThe Thrush:
I hear the thrush, and I see Him alone at the end of the lane Near the bare poplar's tip, Singing continuously.[6]
Hark, how blithe the throstle sings And he is no mean preacher Come forth into the light of things Let Nature be your teacher[52]
The song thrush is the emblem ofWest Bromwich Albion Football Club, chosen because thepublic house in which the team used to change kept a pet thrush in a cage. It also gave rise to Albion's early nickname,The Throstles.[53] A few English pubs and hotels share the nameThrostles Nest.[54]
Thrushes have been trapped for food from as far back as 12,000 years ago[55] and an early reference is found in theOdyssey: "Then, as doves or thrushes beating their spread wings against some snare rigged up in thickets—flying in for a cosy nest but a grisly bed receives them."[56] Hunting continues today around the Mediterranean, but is not believed to be a major factor in this species' decline in parts of its range.[6]
In Spain, this species is normally caught as it migrates through the country, often usingbirdlime which, although banned by theEuropean Union, is still tolerated and permitted in theValencian Community.[57] In 2003 and 2004 theEU tried, but failed, to stop this practice in the Valencian region.[58][59]
Up to at least the nineteenth century the song thrush was kept as a cage bird because of its melodious voice.[60] As with hunting, there is little evidence that the taking of wild birds foraviculture has had a significant effect on wild populations.[12]
^Voelker G, Rohwer S, Bowie RCK, Outlaw DC (2007). "Molecular systematics of a speciose, cosmopolitan songbird genus: Defining the limits of, and relationships among, theTurdus thrushes".Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.42 (2):422–434.Bibcode:2007MolPE..42..422V.doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.07.016.PMID16971142.
^Reilly, John (2018).The Ascent of Birds. Pelagic Monographs. Exeter: Pelagic. pp. 221–225.ISBN978-1-78427-169-5.
^Devoogd, Timothy J.; John R. Krebs; Susan D. Healy; Andy Purvis (1993). "Relations between Song Repertoire Size and the Volume of Brain Nuclei Related to Song: Comparative Evolutionary Analyses amongst Oscine Birds".Proceedings: Biological Sciences.254 (1340):75–82.Bibcode:1993RSPSB.254...75D.doi:10.1098/rspb.1993.0129.PMID8290611.S2CID30762905.
^"The State of Our Indigenous Birds"(PDF).The State of Our Biodiversity – The State of New Zealand's Environment. Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2015-01-24. Retrieved2008-03-13.
^Mason, Christopher F. (1998). "Habitats of the Song ThrushTurdus philomelos in a largely arable landscape".Journal of Zoology.244:89–93.doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1998.tb00010.x.
^abcdeSnow, David; Perrins, Christopher M., eds. (1998).The Birds of the Western Palearctic concise edition (2 volumes). Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-854099-X. 1225–1228
^Davies, N. B. (March 2002). "Cuckoo tricks with eggs and chicks".British Birds.95 (3):101–115.
^Hale, Katrina; Briskie, James V. (March 2007). "Response of introduced European birds in New Zealand to experimental brood parasitism".Journal of Avian Biology.38 (2):198–204.doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2007.03734.x.
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