Song thrush

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Song thrush
Song

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
Genus: Turdus
Species:
T. philomelos
Binomial name
Turdus philomelos
Brehm, 1831
Global map of sightings reported to eBird
  Year-Round Range
  Summer Range
  Winter Range
Synonyms

Turdus musicus[2]

The song thrush (Turdus philomelos) is a

song
, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.

The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory 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-lined

parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey
.

Taxonomy and systematics

Name

The song thrush was described by

Middle Breton milhuyt meaning "thrush."[7] Mavis (Μαβής) can also mean "purple" in Greek.[8]

Classification

A brown spotted bird standing on the rim of a nest with food for four chicks seen with open gapes
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 plumaged

Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.[9][10]

The song thrush has three

ornithologist William Eagle Clarke in 1913, is a mainly sedentary (non-migratory) form found in the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is the darkest subspecies, with a dark brown back, greyish rump, pale buff background colour to the underparts and grey-tinged flanks.[11]

T. p. clarkei, described by German zoologist

Sergei Buturlin in 1929, are not widely accepted.[11]

Description

Song thrush in Slovenia
In flight

The song thrush (as represented by the nominate subspecies T. p. philomelos) is 20 to 23.5 centimetres (7+3⁄4 to 9+1⁄4 inches) in length and weighs 50 to 107 grams (1+3⁄4 to 3+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 from

coverts.[11]

The most similar European thrush species is the redwing (T. iliacus), but that bird has a strong white supercilium, red flanks, and shows a red underwing in flight. The mistle thrush (T. viscivorus) is much larger and has white tail corners, and the Chinese thrush (T. mupinensis), although much more similar in plumage, has black face markings and does not overlap in range.[11]

The song thrush has a short, sharp tsip call, replaced on migration by a thin high seep, similar to the redwing's call but shorter. The alarm call is a chook-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.[11] For its weight, this species has one of the loudest bird calls.[12]

An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases,[13] many copied from its parents and neighbouring birds. Mimicry may include the imitation of man-made items like telephones,[14] and the song thrush will also repeat the calls of captive birds, including exotics such as the white-faced whistling duck.[11]

Distribution and habitat

Juvenile in New Zealand

The song thrush breeds in most of Europe (although not in the greater part of

Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.[11]

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.[15]

Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.[16] 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 the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.[17] Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.[18] In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species,[19] and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.[20] As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.[21]

Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia (Caucasus Mountains)

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

heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.[11]

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% of territories 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).[22]

The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided;[23] however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.[11]

Behaviour and ecology

Breaking the shell of a snail

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 and dark-throated thrush.[11] Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.[23]

This is a monogamous 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.[23]

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.[11] 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 the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.[11] Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.[11]

Breeding and survival

Three eggs in a nest

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 blue

eggs which are lightly spotted with black or purple;[11] they are typically 2.7 cm × 2.0 cm (1+1⁄8 in × 3⁄4 in) size and weigh 6.0 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.[11] 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 of
parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo, but this is very rare because the thrush recognizes the cuckoo's non-mimetic eggs.[24] However, the song thrush does not demonstrate the same aggression toward the adult cuckoo that is shown by the blackbird.[25] The introduced birds in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, have, over the past 130 years, retained the ability to recognize and reject non-mimetic eggs.[26]

Adult birds may be killed by

magpies, jays, and, where present, grey squirrels.[27][28][29] As with other passerine birds, parasites are common, and include endoparasites, such as the nematode Splendidofilaria (Avifilaria) mavis whose specific name mavis derives from this thrush.[30] A Russian study of blood parasites showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularly Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma.[31] Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia,[32] and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.[33] Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.[34]

Feeding

grove snails
on an 'anvil'
Foraging in hedgerow (UK)

The song thrush is

omnivorous, eating a wide range of invertebrates, especially earthworms and snails, as well as soft fruit and berries. 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.[11]

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.[23] Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails.[35] The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae.[11]

The

grove snail (Cepaea nemoralis) is regularly eaten by the song thrush, and its polymorphic shell patterns have been suggested as evolutionary responses to reduce predation;[36] however, song thrushes may not be the only selective force involved.[37]

Status and conservation

In New Zealand

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 western

killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.[40]

Relationship with humans

The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home 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 careless rapture![41]

The song also inspired the nineteenth-century British writer Thomas Hardy, who spoke in Darkling Thrush of the bird's "full-hearted song evensong/Of joy illimited",[42] but twentieth-century British poet Ted Hughes in Thrushes concentrated on its hunting prowess: "Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second".[43] Nineteenth-century Welsh poet Edward Thomas wrote 15 poems concerning blackbirds or thrushes, including The 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]

Dunfermline, Scotland

In The Tables Turned, Romantic poet William Wordsworth references the song thrush, writing

Hark, how blithe the throstle sings
And he is no mean preacher
Come forth into the light of things
Let Nature be your teacher[44]

The song thrush is the emblem of

public 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.[45] A few English pubs and hotels share the name Throstles Nest.[46]

As food

Thrushes have been trapped for food from as far back as 12,000 years ago[47] and an early reference is found in the Odyssey: "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."[48] 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 using birdlime which, although banned by the European Union, is still tolerated and permitted in the Valencian Community.[49] In 2003 and 2004 the EU tried, but failed, to stop this practice in the Valencian region.[50][51]

As pets

Up to at least the nineteenth century the song thrush was kept as a cage bird because of its melodious voice.[52] As with hunting, there is little evidence that the taking of wild birds for aviculture has had a significant effect on wild populations.[11]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22708822A132076619.en
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  3. ^ Brehm, Christian (1831). Handbuch der Naturgeschichte aller Vogel Deutschlands (in German). p. 382.
  4. ^ a b c "Song Thrush Turdus philomelos [CL Brehm, 1831 ]". BTO Birdfacts. British Trust for Ornithology. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
  5. ^ The
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  6. ^ a b c d Cocker, Mark; Mabey, Richard (2005). Birds Britannica. London: Chatto & Windus.
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  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1973. p. 808.
  8. ^ Greek.
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  9. ^ Voelker G, Rohwer S, Bowie RCK, Outlaw DC (2007). "Molecular systematics of a speciose, cosmopolitan songbird genus: Defining the limits of, and relationships among, the Turdus thrushes". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 42 (2): 422–434.
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  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Clement, Peter; Hathway, Ren; Wilczur, Jan (2000). Thrushes (Helm Identification Guides). Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd. pp. 392–395.
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  25. ^ Grim, Tomáŝ; Honza, Marcel (2001). "Differences in behaviour of closely related thrushes (Turdus philomelos and T. merula) to experimental parasitism by the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus" (PDF). Biologia, Bratislava. 56 (5): 549–556. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
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  35. ^ Henty, C. J. (1986). "Development of snail-smashing by song thrushes". British Birds. 79: 277–281.
  36. ^ Goodhart, C. B. (May 1958). "Thrush Predation on the Snail Cepaea hortensis". The Journal of Animal Ecology. 27 (1): 47–57.
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