The Mistle Thrush
(Turdus viscivorus)
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| Length: |
27 cm |
| Eggs and clutches: |
4 - 5 eggs. Pale blue or pale greenish with reddish and purplish blotches. |
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Did you know?
The mistle thrush breeds widely across the region, but is comparatively scarce in Norway and southeast Europe. Birds in the south of the range are mostly sedentary but northern and eastern populations move south and west in the winter months. They forme small flocks in the late summer, prior to dispersal, many becoming nomadic rather than migratory.
Appearance
Male and female are similar. Whitish underparts covered with large, wedge shaped black spots, flanks and breast marked with buff. Upperparts and wings are greyish-brown with conspicuous grewish white fringes to tertials and wing coverts. Tail grey-brown with diagnostic white tips to outer feathers noticeable when bird flies away. Gleaming white underwing visible in flight. Juvenile has white spotting on back and wings.
Similar bird
Similar to song trush when adult, but larger.
Sounds and song
The song is similar to the blackbird's song.
Food and bird tables
Wide variety of invertebrates, berries in autumn and winter.
The nest and hollows
Bulky cup of plant materials lined with fine grass in a tree-fork.
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