After I referred to the robin as a thrush in the Enjoyment of Birds class, a woman asked me, “Alan, what exactly is a thrush?” I digressed to say a little more about this family of robin-like songbirds. Characteristically plump and upright, they hop across the ground feeding on worms and grubs and foraging for berries and insects in trees and shrubs. A diverse family worldwide including bluebirds, solitaires and other species, thrushes are perhaps best known for their lovely songs.
The best known thrush in North America is the sassy, tough and territorial American robin — the bird with an attitude! Due to its adaptability to mixed forests as well as human-modified habitats like parks and lawns, it occurs in large and increasing numbers throughout the continent.
Three additional thrushes spend at least at least one season on Vashon. Unlike the robin, they prefer to reside quietly and mostly unseen in the forest. The hermit and Swainson’s thrush are varying shades of camouflage brown and gray with spotted buff-colored breasts, nothing like the orange-breasted robin. The varied thrush, although sometimes described as “Robin-like,” is actually much more colorful and visually striking bird than the robin.
I remember a few winters back when a friend called me to report an “amazing bird” outside his window. He described it as larger and more upright than a robin. It had heavy stripes of black, blue and orange on the head, a black crescent across the chest, a shiny navy blue back and tail with a bright orange breast and orange streaks across the wings. I referred him to beautiful image of the varied thrush on the cover of Sibley’s Western birds guide book. In winter, varied thrushes come out to forage alongside roads and driveways near the edge of a forest. But unlike the melodious robin, its song is both eerie and ethereal. You can hear it on Vashon throughout the winter, but its ethereal quality and frequency picks up with breeding behavior in March and April. The varied thrush is a uniquely Northwestern resident of deep, dark, wet and mossy evergreen forests. (You can see the raindrops on its back in the photo below!)
On Vashon these three thrushes of the forest come and go with the seasons as though they were playing a game of musical chairs. All of our local wintering hermit thrushes and most wintering varied thrushes migrate within the Pacific Northwest, moving to nest in mountain forests in April and May and returning to whence they came in the fall. As the hermit and varied thrush leave Vashon, the Swainson’s thrush arrives from the tropics to occupy the same forests left behind by the other two thrushes. In fall, all three thrushes reverse the pattern once again. Musical chairs for musical birds.
All of this “thrushing around,” or trading places, is in progress now on Vashon. By mid-May, we’ll be left with only the melodious Swainson’s thrush to fill the soundscape with its song, an ascending loop of highly pitched chords.
But the Swainson’s thrush is relatively shy and more often heard than seen. And following their ethereal songs to the source can be challenging. I remember the first time I heard the song of the Swainson’s thrush; the singer remained a mystery to me in spite of my repeated attempts to find it in the woods. It was like a childhood snipe hunt. Just as I would get close enough to see its shape in dark foliage, it would fly deeper into the forest. This went on for several weeks, until I was fortunate enough to be walking with an experienced birder who identified the song and solved my mystery — a long-anticipated discovery for which I am still grateful. Afterwards I would hear it everywhere and see it often. Although the Swainson’s thrush is a common summer bird on Vashon, it still entices many who have yet to actually see the bird.
And of course, there’s that year-around favorite thrush, the resident robin, whose spunkiness, beauty and complex songs and multiple calls are too beautiful to take for granted. Whether recognizing the beauty of a bird or its song, what new discoveries might await you this spring?
— Alan Huggins is an amateur naturalist and a master birder. He teaches the Enjoyment of Birds for Vashon Audubon.
