Song Thrush
Turdus philomelus
A typical thrush with grey-brown upperparts and spotted breast. Common over much of Europe and through temperate parts of Western former USSR. Americans should think of a bigger version of a Wood Thrush.
This is a smaller bird than the Blackbird and seems to be losing out to it in Britain - for 60 or more years the Blackbird to Song Thrush ratio has been changing in favour of the bigger bird. The problem is probably now agricultural but we are not sure in what way. Has one habit in its favour and that is smashing open snails on a stone used as an anvil (particularly in dry weather) to get at inside. Song good but rather repetitive. Migratory in the North and regularly winters into North Africa. British population now less than 1,000,000 territories and Irish about 400,000.
Medium-sized brown spotty thrush.
The following Bird On! pictures are available:
Song Thrush (Watercolour by Robert Gillmor)
| Length | 230 mm |
| Closed wing | 115 mm |
| Weight | 80 gms |
A Bird On! Sketch
by Chris Mead
Copyright © 1996 by
Jacobi Jayne & Company and Chris Mead