Trypocopris vernalis, (previously listed under the Geotrupes genus as Geotrupes vernalis) known sometimes by the common name spring dumbledor or spring dor beetle, is a type of dung beetle. The larva of Trypocopris vernalis feeds on dung of animals such as sheep (Ovis aries) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes).


Trypocopris vernalis is found in Europe and Asia Minor. Trypocopris vernalis are considered a super-dominant or dominant species of earth-boring dung beetles depending on the season, being most prevalent during the spring and early summer, with rare sightings in the autumn. According to Hülsmann et al., Trypocopris vernalis prefers open or semi-open areas and young woodlands.


Tsuga heterophylla, the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Sonoma County, California. The Latin species name means 'variable leaves'.


Western hemlock is a large evergreen conifer growing to 50–70 metres (165–230 feet) tall, exceptionally 83 m (273 ft), and with a trunk diameter of up to 2.7 m (9 ft). It is the largest species of hemlock, with the next largest (mountain hemlock) reaching a maximum height of 59 m (194 ft). The bark is brown, thin, and furrowed (outwardly appearing similar to that of Douglas-fir). The crown is a very neat broad conic shape in young trees with a strongly drooping lead shoot, becoming cylindrical in older trees, which may have no branches in the lowest 30–40 m (100–130 ft). At all ages, it is readily distinguished by the pendulous branchlet tips. The shoots are very pale buff-brown, almost white, with pale pubescence about 1 millimetre (1⁄32 in) long.
The leaves are needle-like, 5–23 mm (3⁄16–29⁄32 in) long and 1.5–2 mm (1⁄16–3⁄32 in) broad, strongly flattened in cross-section, with a finely serrated margin and a bluntly acute apex. They are mid to dark green above; the underside has two distinctive white bands of stomata with only a narrow green midrib between the bands. They are arranged spirally on the shoots but are twisted at the base to lie in two ranks on either side of the shoot. The cones appear on trees over about 25 years old; they are small, pendulous, slenderly cylindrical, 14–30 mm (9⁄16–1+3⁄16 in) long and 7–8 mm (9⁄32–5⁄16 in) broad when closed, opening to 18–25 mm (23⁄32–31⁄32 in) broad. They have 15–25 thin, flexible scales 7–13 mm (9⁄32–1⁄2 in) long. The immature cones are green, maturing gray-brown 5–7 months after pollination. They are usually plentiful enough to cover the ground beneath the tree. The abundant seeds are brown, 2–3 mm (3⁄32–1⁄8 in) long, with a slender, pale-brown wing measuring 7–9 mm (9⁄32–11⁄32 in) long.
Initial growth is slow; one-year-old seedlings are commonly only 3–5 centimetres (1+1⁄8–2 in) tall, and two-year-old seedlings 10–20 cm (4–8 in) tall. Once established, saplings in full light may have an average growth rate of 50–120 cm (20–47 in) (rarely 140 cm, 55 in) annually until they are 20–30 m (65–100 ft) tall, and in good conditions still 30–40 cm (12–16 in) annually when 40–50 m (130–165 ft) tall. The tallest specimen, 82.83 m (271 ft 9 in) tall, is in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California (United States). The species is long-lived, especially at higher elevations, with trees over 1,200 years old known.


Tsuga heterophylla is an integral component of Pacific Northwest forests west of the Coast Ranges, where it is a climax species. It is also an important timber tree throughout the region, along with many of its large coniferous associates.
The species is closely associated with temperate rainforests, and most of its range is less than 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Pacific Ocean. Valleys it can be found in usually receive at least 80 centimetres (31 inches) of rain annually. It mostly grows at low altitudes, from sea level to 600 m (2,000 ft). In western Washington, it can be found up to elevations of 1,070 m (3,510 ft). The species can also be found in humid areas of mountains further inland, where western white pine is normally dominant.  For example, in the Columbia Mountains in and around southeastern British Columbia and northern Idaho, it grows up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft), particularly on north-facing slopes. In the interior part of its range in Idaho, it can be found up to 1,800 m (5,900 ft).
Western hemlock is a very shade-tolerant tree; among associated species in the Pacific Northwest, it is matched or exceeded in shade tolerance only by Pacific yew and Pacific silver fir. Young plants typically grow up under the canopy of other conifers such as Sitka spruce or Douglas-fir, where they can persist for decades waiting to exploit a gap in the canopy. They eventually replace these conifers, which are relatively shade-intolerant, in climax forest. However, storms and wildfires will create larger openings in the forest where these other species can then regenerate. Its thin bark and shallow roots makes it susceptible to fire. At higher elevations, the species can be found mingling with Tsuga mertensiana (mountain hemlock), seeming to take on some of its characteristics although there is no hard evidence of hybridization.
Western hemlock forms ectomycorrhizal associations with some well-known edible fungi such as chanterelles (Cantharellus formosus, C. subalbidus, and Craterellus tubaeformis). It is capable of associating with wood-decay fungi in addition to soil fungi; this enables its seedlings to survive on rotting stumps and logs. Older forests are damaged by rot-causing fungi, dwarf mistletoe, and leaf-consuming insects such as Acleris gloverana and Lambdina fiscellaria.


The bark has long served as a source of tannin for tanning leather.


Western hemlock is cultivated as an ornamental tree in gardens in its native habitats and along the U.S. Pacific Coast, where its best reliability is seen in wetter regions. In relatively dry areas, as at Victoria, British Columbia, it is exacting about soil conditions. It needs a high level of organic matter (well-rotted wood from an old log or stump is best; animal manures may have too much nitrogen and salt), in a moist, acidic soil. It is also cultivated in temperate regions worldwide.  It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
It can also be found in large gardens in northwest Europe and southern New Zealand.


When planted on the banks of a river, western hemlock can help reduce erosion. Outside of its natural range, the tree is of importance in forestry.
Until the early 1920s, the tree was largely ignored for use as lumber due to its presumed similarity to the poor-quality eastern hemlock. Since then, it has been greatly utilized for timber (as a softwood) and paper production; it is used for making doors, joinery, and furniture. Its fiber is used to make rayon and various plastics.
It has naturalised in some parts of Great Britain and New Zealand—not so extensively as to be considered an invasive species, but as an introduced one.


The edible cambium can be collected by scraping slabs of removed bark. The resulting shavings can be eaten immediately, or can be dried and pressed into bread, as was done by the natives of Southeast Alaska. The inner bark was eaten by some Native American tribes as an emergency food, and the bark was cooked to make medicinal extracts for tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, and hemorrhage. The bark could also be boiled to make dark red dyes to make fishing nets and lines less visible to fish.
Western hemlocks have been submerged to collect herring eggs during the spring spawn in southeast Alaska. The boughs provide an easily collectible surface for the eggs to attach to as well as providing a distinctive taste. This practice originates from traditional gathering methods used by Native Alaskans from southeast Alaska, specifically the Tlingit people.
Tender new-growth needles can be chewed directly or made into a bitter tea, rich in vitamin C (similar to some other hemlock and pine species).


Western hemlock is the state tree of Washington.


Tulipa sylvestris, the wild tulip or  woodland tulip, is a Eurasian and North African species of wild tulip, a plant in the lily family. Its native range extends from Portugal and Morocco to western China, covering most of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Basins, and Central Asia. The species is also cultivated as an ornamental and naturalized in central and northern Europe as well as a few scattered locations in North America.
It was first recorded as being naturalised in Britain in the late 17th century.


It is a bulb-forming perennial, with narrow blue-grey leaves and usually with 1 or 2 flowers per stem. The stem can reach up to 50cm tall. The scented blooms appear between April and May, and the yellow flowers are sometimes tinged red on the outside.
They rarely produce seed and are pollinated by small insects.
Subspecies
Tulipa sylvestris subsp. australis (Link) Pamp - from Portugal + Morocco to Xinjiang
Tulipa sylvestris subsp. primulina (Baker) Maire & Weiller -  Algeria, Morocco
Tulipa sylvestris subsp. sylvestris - Italy, Libya
Tulipa australis is also found on the island of Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, limited to one specific area.


It is found in dry grassy places and in woodland copses.


The jungle babbler (Argya striata) is a member of the family Leiothrichidae found in the Indian subcontinent. Jungle babblers are gregarious birds that forage in small groups of six to ten birds, a habit that has given them the popular name of "Seven Sisters" in urban Northern India, and Saath bhai (seven brothers) in Bengali, with cognates in other regional languages which also mean "seven brothers".
The jungle babbler is a common resident breeding bird in most parts of the Indian subcontinent and is often seen in gardens within large cities as well as in forested areas. In the past, the orange-billed babbler, Turdoides rufescens, of Sri Lanka was considered to be a subspecies of jungle babbler, but has now been elevated to a species.


The jungle babbler was described by the French zoologist Charles Dumont de Sainte Croix in 1823, based on specimens from Bengal. He coined the binomial name Cossyphus striatus. This babbler was formerly placed in the genus Turdoides but following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus Argya.
There are several named geographically isolated subspecies that show plumage shade differences. Former race rufescens of Sri Lanka is considered a full species. The widely accepted subspecies include:
striata (Dumont de Sainte Croix, 1823) which is found over much of northern India south of the Himalayan foothills extending to Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bhutan, Assam, Odisha and northeastern Andhra Pradesh. The form found in parts of Odisha, orissae, is said to be more rufous above and is usually subsumed into this.
sindiana (Ticehurst, 1920) is a paler desert form that is found in the Indus River plains of Pakistan and extends into Rajasthan and the Rann of Kutch in India.
somervillei (Sykes, 1832) is found in the northern Western Ghats.
malabarica (Jerdon, 1845) is found in the southern Western Ghats.
orientalis (Jerdon, 1845) is found in peninsular India east of the Western Ghats.
Some older literature can be confusing due to some incorrect usage, such as with Whistler (1944, Spolia Zeylanica, 23:131), who used the name affinis which is a completely different species, Turdoides affinis, restricted to peninsular India. Although the two can sometimes be confused in poor lighting conditions, their calls are entirely different.


The jungle babbler's habitat is forest and cultivation. This species, like most babblers, is non-migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight. The sexes are identical, drably coloured in brownish grey with a yellow-bill making them confusable only with the endemic yellow-billed babblers of peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The upper parts are usually slightly darker in shade and there is some mottling on the throat and breast. The race T. s. somervillei of Maharashtra has a very rufous tail and dark primary flight feathers. The jungle babbler can be separated from the white-headed babbler by the dark loreal zone between the bill and the eye as well as the lack of a contrasting light crown. The calls of the two species are however distinct and unmistakable. The jungle babbler has harsh nasal calls while the white-headed babbler has high pitched calls. Another babbler that is similarly found in urban areas is the large grey babbler; however, that species has a distinctive long tail with white outer tail feathers.
The jungle babbler lives in flocks of seven to ten or more. It is a noisy bird, and the presence of a flock may generally be known at some distance by the harsh mewing calls, continual chattering, squeaking and chirping produced by its members.


These birds are gregarious and very social. They sometimes form the core of a mixed-species foraging flock.  They feed mainly on insects, but also eat grains, nectar and berries. The groups maintain territories and will defend them against neighbours, which are nevertheless sometimes tolerated. For their size, they are long lived and have been noted to live as long as 16.5 years in captivity.
When foraging, some birds take up a high vantage point and act as sentinels. They are known to gather and mob potential predators such as snakes.
Young birds have a dark iris. Older birds have an iris of a pale creamy colour and it has been found that the iris has a dark epithelium, which becomes invisible when the muscle fibres develop in the iris and make the dark basal colours invisible and thus appear cream-coloured.
They breed throughout the year, with peak breeding in northern India being noted between March–April and July–September. Birds reach sexual maturity after their third year. The nest is built halfway up in a tree, concealed in dense masses of foliage. The normal clutch is three or four (but can be up to seven) deep greenish blue eggs. In northern India, birds breeding during July–September tend to be parasitized by the pied crested cuckoo and sometimes by the common hawk-cuckoo. Helpers assist the parents in feeding the young. Post fledging survival is very high.
Birds fledge and females tend to leave their natal group after about two years. Birds within a group often indulge in allopreening, play chases and mock fights. When threatened by predators, they have been said to sometimes feign death.


These birds are very common near towns and cities particularly in northern India and are well known for their habit of moving in groups giving them the local name of "Sat Bhai" which means seven brethren but translated by the English in India to "Seven sisters". Visitors to India were very likely to notice these vocal and active birds and Frank Finn notes an incident during the Colonial period in India:
Some years back, a new Viceroy was being shown the wonders of his temporary kingdom, and among these the Taj at Agra held, of course, an important place. Arrived before the glorious monument of Eastern love and pride, the artless Aide-de-Camp was mute; the gilded staff were still as Kipling says, in anxious expectation of the comment of His Excellency. But this, alas when it came was merely the remark: "What are those funny little birds?" The shock must have been the greater for the fact that the mean fowls thus honoured were it seems, of that singularly disreputable species which is commonly known in India as the "Seven Sisters" or "Seven Brothers," or by the Hindustani equivalent of sat-bhai.
The Indian folklorist Saratcandra Mitra recorded a belief among the Lushai-Kuki people that during a solar eclipse, humans could transform into jungle babblers.


The Chiguanco thrush (Turdus chiguanco) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in Ecuador and the Altiplano. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland and heavily degraded former forest.


The austral thrush (Turdus falcklandii) is a medium-sized thrush from southern South America. There are two subspecies, the Magellan thrush (T. f. magellanicus) from south Argentina and south and central Chile, and the Falkland thrush (T. f. falcklandii) from the Falkland Islands.
The austral thrush is similar to the European blackbird, also of the genus Turdus, with a yellow bill and feet, a dark brown head, back and wings and paler underparts. The smaller T. f. magellanicus is more olive below, while in  T. f. falcklandii the underside tends towards ochre. Both subspecies have streaked throats.
In Chile and Argentina the austral thrush lives in a variety of habitats from Nothofagus forests to agricultural lands and even gardens. On the Falkland Islands it makes use of human altered habitat as well but is most numerous in tussac grasses near beaches.


The great thrush (Turdus fuscater) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. It is considered as the largest thrush in South America. The great thrush's size distinguishes it from the several other uniform slaty-colored thrushes in its range. It inhabits subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and high-altitude shrubland, but can also make use of degraded forest and urban areas.


Adults are 28 to 33 cm (11 to 13 in) in length and weigh 128 to 175 g (4.5 to 6.2 oz), averaging 141 g (5.0 oz), making the species the largest member of the wide-ranging Turdus genus, and one of the largest thrushes although the Amami thrush and the blue whistling thrush may match or exceed it in size. It can be easily identified by its yellowish-orange beak and legs and yellow ring around the eye. Slight sexual dimorphism is sometimes present, with males having more strongly coloured legs and eye rings. Tail feathers are long. The plumage is black-brown, darker on wings and tail and pale on the belly. Juveniles are predominantly greenish gray with a pale belly and some spots of buff colour on the head and wings. Subspecies show subtle differences in colouration, with T. f. ockendeni being the darkest one, followed by T. f. quindio and T .f. gigantodes. The palest subspecies are T. f. gigas, T. f. cacozelus and T. f. fuscater. Albinistic specimens are known to exist but very rare.


The species is a typical Andean highlands bird. Its range covers the Andes in western and northern Venezuela as far as Lara and Trujillo, the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and finally, northwest Bolivia. It occurs at altitudes of 1800–4000 meters.
The great thrush makes use of a variety of habitats, including open forest, backyards, parks, and even farmland with scattered trees or forest remnants. It also occurs at the edges of different classes of Andean forests, including humid montane, secondary and temperate forests. It is more likely to be found at altitudes above 2000 m. The species tends to avoid dry conditions and densely forested areas, but sometimes occurs on the edges of Andean páramo or in shrublands. It commonly inhabits urban habitats in the highlands, e.g. in Quito and Bogota. Populations are generally sedentary.


The great thrush is a generalist feeder, principally foraging for fruits and berries but also taking invertebrates and even stealing eggs and nestlings. It tends to swallow fruits whole. It generally feeds on ground level, preferentially in short grass, but also visits fruiting trees and shrubs. Activity peaks are at dawn and dusk. When flushed, flight distance is usually short.
Adults become very territorial in the breeding season but can form groups of up to 40 individuals at other times of the year. It is probable that these groups form a communal perch in trees until the next breeding season comes.
Breeding occurs at different times of the year depending on locality - March–April in Venezuela, January–August in Colombia, October in Ecuador, and February and June in Peru. The nest is comparatively large and cup-shaped, made of small twigs, leaves, grass, and mud, and placed low in trees or shrubs. The female lays two eggs of pale blue-greenish colour with reddish spots, with an average size of 2 cm.


The great thrush is common in a variety of habitats throughout its wide range and has been classified as Least Concern by the IUCN. The species readily adapts to anthropogenic disturbances and can make use of urban, deforested or agricultural areas.


The clay-colored thrush (Turdus grayi) is a common Middle American bird of the thrush family (Turdidae). It is the national bird of Costa Rica, where it is well known as the yigüirro (Spanish: [ʝi'ɣwiro]). Other common names include clay-colored robin.
It ranges from South Texas (where it is rapidly expanding its range) to northern Colombia. West and north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, it is limited to the Atlantic slope, except for a population around Oaxaca City, Mexico that probably originates from escaped cage birds.


In general appearance and habits it resembles other Turdus thrushes such as the American robin. It is about the same length or slightly smaller: 23–27 cm (9.1–10.6 in), and weighs 74–76 g (2.6–2.7 oz) on average. The plumage is brownish, somewhat lighter below than above, lightest on the flanks. Birds from humid regions are darker than those from dry regions. The throat is faintly streaked. Immature birds have faint mottling on the back and underparts. The bill is greenish-yellow with a dark base, the legs are pinkish or flesh-colored, and the irises are reddish—all useful identification points.
The song, rather low-pitched and with a slow steady tempo, consists of many slurred musical phrases which are often repeated irregularly. The tock flight call is like the American robin's but harsher.


In much of its range it is familiar in yards and gardens, similar to some other thrushes such as the American robin, the Eurasian blackbird, and the song thrush. In 1977, the Costa Ricans chose the yigüirro as a national symbol (over many much more colorful birds that inhabit the country) due to its strong and melodious song that always comes during the start of the rainy season. In addition, unlike many of the forest songsters of Costa Rica, the present bird has been familiar to the general population since the country's early history, thanks to the species' tendency to live near houses and settlements.
The clay-colored thrush usually forages for fruit or invertebrates on the ground or near it, singly or in pairs, but flocks may feed high in fruiting trees. It will follow army ants to feed on small prey disturbed by the ant columns.
It builds a heavy cup nest of grass, moss, feathers, leaves and mud on a firm support above the ground, which may include human constructions such as windowsills. It lays 2 to 4 pale blue eggs with red-brown and gray markings between March and July and may double-brood. It is aggressive in defense of its nest, having been known to mob raptors as large as golden eagles, but is not otherwise particularly territorial. Aggressive defense against brood parasites may explain why it has not evolved complete recognition of brood parasite eggs; it is one of only very few species of birds that are partial ejectors, with only about 25% of individuals ejecting parasitic eggs of the bronzed cowbird.


The American robin (Turdus migratorius) is a migratory songbird of the true thrush genus and Turdidae, the wider thrush family. It is named after the European robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the Old World flycatcher family. The American robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering from southern Canada to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
According to the Partners in Flight database (2019), the American robin is the most abundant bird in North America (with 370,000,000 individuals), ahead of red-winged blackbirds, introduced European starlings, mourning doves and house finches. It has seven subspecies, but only one of them, the San Lucas robin (T. m. confinis) of Baja California Sur, is particularly distinctive, with pale gray-brown underparts.
The American robin is active mostly during the day and assembles in large flocks at night. Its diet consists of invertebrates (such as beetle grubs, earthworms, and caterpillars), fruits, and berries. It is one of the earliest bird species to lay its eggs, beginning to breed shortly after returning to its summer range from its winter range. The robin's nest consists of long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers, and is smeared with mud and often cushioned with grass or other soft materials. It is among the earliest birds to sing at dawn, and its song consists of several discrete units that are repeated.
The adult robin's main predator is the domestic cat; other predators include hawks and snakes. When feeding in flocks, it can be vigilant, watching other birds for reactions to predators. Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) lay their eggs in robin nests (see brood parasite), but the robins usually reject the egg.


This species was first described in 1766  by Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae as Turdus migratorius. The binomial name derives from two Latin words: turdus, "thrush", and migratorius from migrare "to migrate". The term robin for this species has been recorded since at least 1703. There are about 65 species of medium to large thrushes in the genus Turdus, characterized by rounded heads, longish pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.
A study of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene indicates that the American robin is not part of the Central/South American clade of Turdus thrushes; instead it shows genetic similarities to the Kurrichane thrush (T. libonyanus) and the olive thrush (T. olivaceus), both African species. This conflicts with a 2007 DNA study of 60 of 65 Turdus species, which places the American robin's closest relative as the rufous-collared thrush (T. rufitorques) of Central America. Though having distinct plumage, the two species are similar in vocalization and behavior. Beyond this, it lies in a small group of four species of otherwise Central American distribution, suggesting it recently spread northwards into North America.
Seven subspecies of American robin are recognized. These subspecies intergrade with each other and are only weakly defined.
The eastern robin (T. m. migratorius), the nominate subspecies, breeds in the U.S. and Canada, other than down the West Coast, to the edge of the tundra from Alaska and northern Canada east to New England and then south to Maryland, northwestern Virginia, and North Carolina. It winters in southern coastal Alaska, southern Canada, most of the U.S., Bermuda, the Bahamas and eastern Mexico.
The Newfoundland robin (T. m. nigrideus) breeds from coastal northern Quebec to Labrador and Newfoundland and winters from southern Newfoundland south through most of the eastern U.S. states to southern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and northern Georgia. It is uniformly darker or blackish on the head, with a dark gray back. The underparts are slightly redder than those of the eastern subspecies.
The southern robin (T. m. achrusterus) breeds from southern Oklahoma east to Maryland and western Virginia and south to northern Florida and the Gulf Coast states. It winters through much of the southern part of the breeding range. It is smaller than the eastern subspecies. The black feathers of the forehead and crown have pale gray tips. The underparts are paler than those of the eastern subspecies.
The northwestern robin (T. m. caurinus) breeds in southeastern Alaska through coastal British Columbia to Washington and northwestern Oregon. It winters from southwestern British Columbia south to central and southern California and east to northern Idaho. It is slightly smaller than the eastern subspecies and very dark-headed. The white on the tips of the outer two tail feathers is restricted.
The western robin (T. m. propinquus) breeds from southeastern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and southwestern Saskatchewan south to southern California and northern Baja California. It winters throughout much of the southern breeding range and south to Baja California. It is the same size as, or slightly larger than, the eastern subspecies, but paler and tinged more heavily brownish-gray. It has very little white on the tip of the outermost tail feathers. Some birds, probably females, lack almost any red below. Males are usually darker and may show pale or whitish sides to the head.
The San Lucas robin (T. m. confinis) breeds above 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in the highlands of southern Baja California. This subspecies is particularly distinctive, with pale gray-brown underparts. It is relatively small, and the palest subspecies, with uniform pale gray-brown on the head, face and upperparts. It usually lacks any white spots to the tips of the outer tail feathers, which have white edges. It is sometimes classed as a separate species, but the American Ornithologists' Union regards it as only a subspecies, albeit in a different group from the other six subspecies.
The Mexican robin (T. m. phillipsi) is resident in Mexico south to central Oaxaca. It is slightly smaller than the western subspecies, but has a larger bill; the male's underparts are less brick-red than the eastern subspecies and have a rustier tone.


The eastern subspecies of the American robin (T. m. migratorius) is 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in) long with a wingspan ranging from 31 to 41 cm (12 to 16 in), with similar size ranges across all subspecies. The species averages about 77 g (2.7 oz) in weight, with males ranging from 72 to 94 g (2.5 to 3.3 oz) and females ranging from 59 to 91 g (2.1 to 3.2 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 11.5 to 14.5 cm (4.5 to 5.7 in), the culmen is 1.8 to 2.2 cm (0.71 to 0.87 in) and the tarsus is 2.9 to 3.3 cm (1.1 to 1.3 in). The head varies from jet black to gray, with white eye arcs and white supercilia. The throat is white with black streaks, and the belly and undertail coverts are white. The American robin has a brown back and a reddish-orange breast, varying from a rich red maroon to peachy orange. The bill is mainly yellow with a variably dark tip, the dusky area becoming more extensive in winter, and the legs and feet are brown.
The sexes are similar, but the female tends to be duller than the male, with a brown tint to the head, brown upperparts and less-bright underparts. However, some birds cannot be accurately sexed on the sole basis of plumage. The juvenile is paler in color than the adult male and has dark spots on its breast, and whitish wing coverts. First-year birds are not easily distinguishable from adults, but they tend to be duller, and a small percentage retain a few juvenile wing coverts or other feathers.


This bird breeds throughout most of North America, from Alaska and Canada southward to northern Florida and Mexico. While robins occasionally overwinter in the northern part of the United States and southern Canada, most migrate to winter south of Canada from Florida and the Gulf Coast to central Mexico, as well as along the Pacific Coast. Most depart south by the end of August and begin to return north in February and March (exact dates vary with latitude and climate). The distance by which robins migrate varies significantly depending on their initial habitat; a study found that individual robins tagged in Alaska are known to travel as much as 3.5x further across seasons than robins tagged in Massachusetts.
This species is actually a rare vagrant to western Europe, where the majority of records, more than 20, have been in Great Britain. In the autumn of 2003, migration was displaced eastwards leading to massive movements through the eastern U.S., and presumably this is what led to no fewer than three American robins being found in Great Britain, with two attempting to overwinter in 2003–2004, although one was taken by a Eurasian sparrowhawk. A sighting occurred in Great Britain in January 2007. This species has also occurred as a vagrant to Greenland, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Belize. Vagrants to Europe, where identified to subspecies, are the eastern subspecies (T. m. migratorius), but the Greenland birds also included the Newfoundland subspecies (T. m. nigrideus), and some of the southern overshots may have been the southern subspecies (T. m. achrusterus).
The American robin's breeding habitat is woodland and more open farmland and urban areas. It becomes less common as a breeder in the southernmost part of the Deep South of the United States, and there prefers large shade trees on lawns. Its winter habitat is similar, but includes more open areas.


The American robin is a known reservoir (carrier) for West Nile virus. While crows and jays are often the first noticed deaths in an area with West Nile virus, the American robin is suspected to be a key host, and holds a larger responsibility for the transmission of the virus to humans. This is because, while crows and jays die quickly from the virus, the American robin survives the virus longer, hence spreading it to more mosquitoes, which then transmit the virus to humans and other species.


The American robin is active mostly during the day, and on its winter grounds it assembles in large flocks at night to roost in trees in secluded swamps or dense vegetation. The flocks break up during the day when the birds feed on fruits and berries in smaller groups. During the summer, the American robin defends a breeding territory and is less social.


The American robin's diet generally consists of around 40 percent small invertebrates (mainly insects), such as earthworms, beetle grubs, caterpillars and grasshoppers, and 60 percent wild and cultivated fruits and berries. Their ability to switch to berries allows them to winter much farther north than most other North American thrushes. They will flock to fermented Pyracantha berries, and after eating sufficient quantities will exhibit intoxicated behavior, such as falling over while walking. Robins forage primarily on the ground for soft-bodied invertebrates, and find worms by sight (and sometimes by hearing), pouncing on them and then pulling them up. Nestlings are fed mainly on earthworms and other soft-bodied animal prey. In some areas, robins, particularly of the northwestern subspecies (T. m. caurinus), will feed on beaches, taking insects and small mollusks. American robins are common pests of fruit orchards in North America. Due to their insectivorous and frugivorous diet they have evolved to lose sucrase. Brugger & Nelms 1991 find sucrose is unpalatable to them and can be used by humans as a deterrent.
The American robin uses auditory, visual, olfactory and possibly vibrotactile cues to find prey, but vision is the predominant mode of prey detection. It is frequently seen running across lawns picking up earthworms, and its running and stopping behavior is a distinguishing characteristic. In addition to hunting visually, it also has the ability to hunt by hearing. Experiments have discovered that it can find earthworms underground by simply using its listening skills. It typically will take several short hops and then cock its head left, right or forward to detect movement of its prey. In urban areas, robins will gather in numbers soon after lawns are mowed or where sprinklers are in use.


Juvenile robins and eggs are preyed upon by squirrels, snakes, and some birds, such as blue jays, California scrub jays, Steller's jays, common grackles, American crows, and common ravens. Adults are primarily taken by Accipiter hawks, cats, and larger snakes (especially rat snakes and gopher snakes). Mammals, such as foxes and dogs, are mainly likely to grab fledgling young robins from the ground, while raccoons often prey upon nests and small carnivores such as American martens, ring-tailed cats and long-tailed weasels are agile enough to hunt adults. However, the greatest predatory impact (perhaps alongside domestic cats) is probably from raptorial birds. They may be taken by nearly every variety of North American accipitrid, from the smallest, the sharp-shinned hawk, to one of the two largest, the golden eagle, most every North American falcon from the smallest, the American kestrel, to the largest, the gyrfalcon, and almost all owl species from the northern pygmy owl to the snowy owl. Overall, 28 raptorial bird species are known to hunt American robins. Adult robins are most vulnerable when distracted by breeding activities, though they may also be attacked on the ground or even in flight. However, when feeding in flocks, the American robin is able to remain vigilant and watch other flock members for reactions to predators.
The American robin is known to be a rejecter of cowbird eggs, so brood parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird is rare. Even when it occurs, the parasite's chick does not normally survive to fledging. In a study of 105 juvenile robins, 77.1% were infected with one or more species of endoparasite, with Syngamus species the most commonly encountered, found in 57.1% of the birds.


The American robin begins to breed shortly after returning to its summer range. It is one of the first North American bird species to lay eggs, and normally has two to three broods per breeding season, which lasts from April to July.
The nest is most commonly located 1.5–4.5 m (4.9–14.8 ft) above the ground in a dense bush or in a fork between two tree branches, and is built by the female alone. The outer foundation consists of long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers. This is lined with smeared mud and cushioned with fine grass or other soft materials. A new nest is built for each brood, and in northern areas the first clutch is usually placed in an evergreen tree or shrub, while later broods are placed in deciduous trees. The American robin does not shy away from nesting close to human habitations.
A clutch consists of three to five light blue eggs, and is incubated by the female alone. The eggs hatch after 14 days, and the chicks leave the nest a further two weeks later. The altricial chicks are naked and have their eyes closed for the first few days after hatching.
The chicks are fed earthworms, insects, and berries. Waste accumulation does not occur in the nest because the adults collect and take it away. Chicks are fed, and then raise tails for elimination of waste, a solid white clump that is collected by a parent prior to flying off. All chicks in the brood leave the nest within two days of each other. Juveniles become capable of sustained flight two weeks after fledging. Bird banders have found that only 25% of young robins survive their first year. The longest known lifespan of an American robin in the wild is 14 years; the average lifespan is about 2 years.


The male American robin, as with many thrushes, has a complex and almost continuous song. It is commonly described as a cheery carol, made up of discrete units, often repeated, and spliced together into a string with brief pauses in between. The song varies regionally, and its style varies by the time of day. The song period is from late February or early March to late July or early August; some birds, particularly in the east, sing occasionally into September or later. They are often among the first songbirds to sing as dawn rises or hours before, and last as evening sets in. It usually sings from a high perch in a tree. The song of the San Lucas subspecies (T. m. confinis) is weaker than that of the eastern subspecies (T. m. migratorius), and lacks any clear notes.
The American robin also sings when storms approach and again when storms have passed. In addition to its song, the species has a number of calls used for communicating specific information, such as when a ground predator approaches and when a nest or another American robin is being directly threatened. Even during nesting season, when they exhibit mostly competitive and territorial behavior, they may still band together to drive away a predator.


The American robin has an extensive range, estimated at 16,000,000 km² (6,200,000 sq mi), and a large population of about 370 million individuals. The western subspecies (T. m. propinquus) in central California are considered to be expanding their range, as is likely the case elsewhere in the United States. It is threatened by climate change and severe weather, but the population trend appears to be stable, and the species does not approach the vulnerable species thresholds under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations), and therefore International Union for Conservation of Nature evaluated it as least concern.
At one point, the bird was killed for its meat, but it is now protected throughout its range in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.


Robin egg blue is a color named after the color of the bird's eggs.
The American robin is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It was also depicted on the 1986 Birds of Canada series Canadian $2 note (this note was subsequently withdrawn.) It has a place in Native American mythology. The story of how the robin got its red breast by fanning the dying flames of a campfire to save a Native American man and a boy is similar to those that surround the European robin. The Tlingit people of northwestern North America held it to be a culture hero created by Raven to please the people with its song. The Peace Bridge robins were a family of American robins that attracted minor publicity in the mid-1930s for their prominent nest on the Canadian side of the Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo, New York, to Fort Erie, Ontario.
The American robin is considered a symbol of spring. A well-known example is a poem by Emily Dickinson titled "I Dreaded That First Robin So". Among other 19th-century poems about the first robin of spring is "The First Robin" by Dr. William H. Drummond, which according to the author's wife is based on a Quebec superstition that whoever sees the first robin of spring will have good luck. The association has continued down to the present day, as, for example, in one Calvin and Hobbes cartoon from 1990 that had Calvin celebrating his inevitable wealth and fame after seeing the first robin of spring. The harbinger of spring sobriquet is borne out by the fact that American robins tend to follow the 37 °F (3 °C) isotherm north in spring, but also south in fall.
American popular songs featuring this bird include "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)", written by Harry M. Woods. Although the comic book superhero Robin was inspired by an N. C. Wyeth illustration of Robin Hood, a later version had his mother nicknaming him Robin because he was born on the first day of spring.


The song thrush (Turdus philomelos) is a thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies. Its distinctive 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 cup nest in a bush or tree and lays four to five dark-spotted blue eggs. It is omnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an "anvil" on which to break open the shells of snails. Like other perching birds (passerines), it is affected by external and internal parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey.


The song thrush was described by German ornithologist Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1831, and still bears its original scientific name, Turdus philomelos. The generic name, Turdus, is the Latin for thrush, and the specific epithet refers to a character in Greek mythology, Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird. Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek Φιλο philo- (loving), and μέλος melos (song). The dialect names throstle and mavis both mean thrush, being related to the German drossel and French mauvis respectively. Throstle dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used by Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls. Mavis is derived via Middle English mavys and Old French mauvis from Middle Breton milhuyt meaning "thrush." Mavis (Μαβής) can also mean "purple" in Greek.


A molecular study indicated that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush (T. viscivorus) and Chinese thrush (T. mupinensis); these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa. They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird (T. merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.
The song thrush has three subspecies, with the nominate subspecies, T. p. philomelos, covering the majority of the species' range. T. p. hebridensis, described by British 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.
T. p. clarkei, described by German zoologist Ernst Hartert in 1909, and named for William Eagle Clarke, breeds in the rest of Great Britain and Ireland and on mainland Europe in France, Belgium, the Netherlands 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 and Iberia. This form intergrades with the nominate subspecies in central Europe, and with T. p. hebridensis in the Inner Hebrides and western Scotland, and in these areas birds show intermediate characteristics. Additional subspecies, such as T. p. nataliae of Siberia, proposed by the Russian Sergei Buturlin in 1929, are not widely accepted.


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 Sweden to Siberia. The juvenile resembles the adult, but has buff or orange streaks on the back and wing coverts.
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.
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. For its weight, this species has one of the loudest bird calls.
An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases, many copied from its parents and neighbouring birds. Mimicry may include the imitation of man-made items like telephones, and the song thrush will also repeat the calls of captive birds, including exotics such as the white-faced whistling duck.


The song thrush breeds in most of Europe (although not in the greater part of Iberia, lowland Italy or southern Greece), and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75°N in Norway, but only to about 60°N in Siberia. Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the 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.
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.
Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons. 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. Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne. In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country. As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.
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 subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including 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.
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).
The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided; however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.


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. Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.
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.
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. 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. Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.


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; 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. 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. 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.
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. However, the song thrush does not demonstrate the same aggression toward the adult cuckoo that is shown by the blackbird. 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.
Adult birds may be killed by cats, little owls and sparrowhawks, and eggs and nestlings are taken by magpies, jays, and, where present, grey squirrels. 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. A Russian study of blood parasites showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularly Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma. Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria. Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.


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.
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. Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails. The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae.
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; however, song thrushes may not be the only selective force involved.


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.
In the western Palaearctic, 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 the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of "Least Concern". In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists. The decreases are greatest in farmlands (73% since the mid-1970s) and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades. 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. In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat. In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.


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!
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", but twentieth-century British poet Ted Hughes in Thrushes concentrated on its hunting prowess: "Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second". 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.
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
The song thrush is the emblem of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, chosen because the 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. A few English pubs and hotels share the name Throstles Nest.


Thrushes have been trapped for food from as far back as 12,000 years ago 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." Hunting continues today around the Mediterranean, but is not believed to be a major factor in this species' decline in parts of its range.
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. In 2003 and 2004 the EU tried, but failed, to stop this practice in the Valencian region.


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


The fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic. It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter. It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain & Ireland, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.
Fieldfares often nest in small colonies, possibly for protection from predators. The nest is built in a tree where five or six eggs are laid. The chicks are fed by both parents and leave the nest after a fortnight. There may be two broods in southern parts of the range but only one further north. Migrating birds and wintering birds often form large flocks, often in the company of redwings.
The fieldfare is 25 cm (10 in) long, with a grey crown, neck and rump, a plain brown back, dark wings and tail and white underwings. The breast and flanks are heavily spotted. The breast has a reddish wash and the rest of the underparts are white. The sexes are similar in appearance but the females are slightly more brown. The male has a simple chattering song and the birds have various guttural flight and alarm calls.


The English common name fieldfare dates back to at least the eleventh century. The Old English word feldefare perhaps meant traveller through the fields.
The species was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name. The name Turdus pilaris comes from two separate Latin words for thrush. No subspecies are recognised.


About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs. Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the fieldfare is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.


The fieldfare is easily recognisable with its slate-grey head, nape and rump, dark brown back, blackish tail and boldly speckled breast. In flight, its white under wing-coverts and axillaries are conspicuous. The harsh flight call "tsak tsak" is also distinctive.
The forehead and crown of the male are bluish-grey and each feather has a central brownish-black band. The lores and under-eye regions are black and there are faint, pale streaks above the eyes. The ear coverts, nape, hind neck and rump are bluish-grey, usually with a white streak near the shaft of each rump feather. The scapulars and mantle feathers are dark chestnut-brown with dark central streaks and pale tips. There are fourteen tail feathers each with a pointed tip, the outer two slightly shorter than the others giving a rounded tail. They are brownish-black, with inconspicuous darker bars visible in some lights. The outer edge of each tail feather is fringed with grey near the base and the outer pair of feathers have a narrow white border on the inner edge. The chin, throat and upper breast are creamy-buff with bold streaks and speckles of brownish-black. The lower breast is creamy-white with a diminishing buff tinge and fewer speckles and the belly is similarly creamy-white, with the speckles restricted to the uppermost parts. The primaries are brownish-black with the leading edge fringed grey and the inner edge of the outer feathers grey near the base whereas the inner feathers are fringed with brown near the base. The secondaries are similar but fringed with chestnut-brown on the leading edge. The upper wing-coverts are brownish-black and similar to the outer primaries in their margin colouration. The axillaries and under wing-coverts are white and the under tail-coverts have dark greyish-brown bases and margins and white centres and tips. The beak is strong, with a slight curve and a notch near the tip. It is orange-yellow in winter, with the upper mandible somewhat brownish and both mandible tips brownish-black. In the summer both mandibles of the male's beak are yellow. The irises are dark brown and the legs and feet are brown. The average adult length is 25 cm (9.8 in), the winglength is 14.5 cm (5.7 in) and the tarsal length 3.5 cm (1.4 in). Wingspan ranges from 39 to 42 cm and weight ranges from 80 to 140 g.
The female is very similar to the male but the upper parts are somewhat more brownish and the feathers on the crown have narrower black central stripes. The throat and breast are paler with fewer, smaller markings. The beak is similar to the male's winter beak. The juvenile are a duller colour than the adults with pale coloured streaks on the feathers that have dark streaks in the adult. The young assume their adult plumage after their first moult in the autumn.
The call is mostly uttered in flight and is a harsh "tsak tsak tsuk". The same sound, but softer, is made more conversationally when individuals gather in trees. When angry or alarmed they emit various warning sounds reminiscent of the mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus). The male has a rather feeble song that he sings in the breeding season. It is a mixture of a few phrases like those of the common blackbird (Turdus merula) interspersed with whistles, guttural squeaks and call notes. This is sung on the wing and also from a tree and a subdued version of this song with more warbling notes is sung by a group of birds at communal roosts.


The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution. It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China. Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region. Eastern populations migrate to Anatolia, Israel, Iran and Northwest India, and occasionally Northeast India. It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus. The flight of the fieldfare is slow and direct. It takes several strong beats then closes its wings briefly before flapping on. It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season. When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction, keeping up a constant chatter. When foraging on the ground, often in association with redwings, the group works its way up wind, each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding. When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere. In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches. They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground. Common sites are in rough grass among bushes or clumps of rushes, in young plantations, on stubble and in the furrows of ploughed fields.


In the summer the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground. It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens. It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line. In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland. They are nomadic, wandering wherever there is an abundance of berries and insects. Later in the year they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.


The fieldfare is omnivorous. Animal food in the diet includes snails and slugs, earthworms, spiders and insects such as beetles and their larvae, flies and grasshoppers. When berries ripen in the autumn these are taken in great number. Hawthorn, holly, rowan, yew, juniper, dog rose, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha and Berberis are all relished. Later in the winter windfall apples are eaten, swedes attacked in the field and grain and seeds eaten. When these are exhausted, or in particularly harsh weather, the birds may move to marshes or even the foreshore where molluscs are to be found.


The breeding season starts in May in Poland but further north in Scandinavia may not start until early July. The female fieldfare builds a cup-shaped nest with no attempt at concealment. The location is often in woodland but may be in a hedgerow, garden, among rocks, in a pile of logs, in a hut or on the ground. Fieldfares usually nest in close proximity to others of the same species. The adults will defend the nest aggressively and nesting gregariously may offer protection from predators. The nest is built of dried grasses and weeds with a few twigs and a little moss, with a lining of mud and an inner lining of fine grasses. There are usually five to six eggs in a clutch, but occasionally three, four, seven or eight eggs are laid. The eggs vary in size from 28.8 by 20.9 to 33.5 by 23.4 millimetres (1.13 in × 0.82 in to 1.32 in × 0.92 in) and are variable in colour. Many are pale blue speckled with fine brown dots and resemble those of the common blackbird. Others are bright blue, with or without larger red-brown splotches. Incubation starts before all the eggs are laid and lasts for thirteen to fourteen days. The female does all or most of the incubation. The chicks are altricial and both parents bring food to them. They are usually ready to leave the nest after fourteen to sixteen days and there may be two broods in the season, especially in the southern parts of the breeding range.


The fieldfare has an extensive range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres (3.8 million square miles), and a large population, including an estimated forty two to seventy two million individuals in Europe. There are thought to be up to twenty million individuals in Russia and the global population is estimated to be between forty-four and ninety-six million individuals. The population size appears to be stable and the bird is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and is therefore evaluated as being of "least concern".
In the United Kingdom, at the extreme edge of the fieldfare's breeding range, only a handful of pairs breed. It is therefore classified by the RSPB as a Red List species as of January 2013.


The rufous-bellied thrush (Turdus rufiventris) is a songbird of the thrush family (Turdidae). It occurs in most of east and southeast Brazil from Maranhão south to Rio Grande do Sul states, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and central regions of Argentina.
It is one of the most common birds across much of southeastern Brazil, and is known there under the name sabiá-laranjeira (Portuguese pronunciation: [sabiˈa laɾɐ̃ˈʒejɾɐ]). It was famously referred to in the well-known first strophe of the Brazilian nationalist poem Canção do exílio. The rufous-bellied thrush has been the state bird of São Paulo since 1966, and the national bird of Brazil since 2002. It is highly regarded in Brazil, where its song is often heard in the afternoons, but specially during the nights between August and November, where thousands of them sing until the sunrise, and is often seen as "the spirit of the Brazilian commoner".


This species is named after its distinctive reddish-orange underparts. Rufous-bellied thrushes can reach a length of 25 cm and weigh up to 68 g (male) or 78 g (female), though weights of about 59 g for males and 64 g for females are more usual. Contrary to what one might expect from the rather marked weight difference, the females are not larger, only plumper; their tarsus is actually a bit shorter than that of males on average.


BirdLife International (2016). "Turdus rufiventris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22708882A94182217. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22708882A94182217.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
Meyer, Amelia (2010). "Brazil National Symbols". www.brazil.org.za. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
Sick et al. (1997): p.705
Sick et al. (1997): p.701
Machado (1999), Olson & Alvarenga (2006)
de Lyra-Neves et al. (2007)
Auer et al. (2007)
BLI (2008)


The rufous-backed thrush (Turdus rufopalliatus) is a songbird of the thrush family. It is endemic to the Pacific slope of Mexico. It is also known as the rufous-backed robin.


This species is shyer than the American robin. In winter it often forms flocks. The diet is typical of thrushes: fruit and invertebrates, especially insects. Reproduction resembles that of other Turdus species. The eggs are whitish with heavy red-brown markings. In regard to nesting, nests are usually made of plant material mixed with mud, found in trees and shrubs, and can hold about 2-3 nestlings  One of the parents tends to build the nest, while both sexes care for the nestlings and defend the nest territory.


The mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus) is a bird common to much of Europe, temperate Asia and North Africa. It is a year-round resident in a large part of its range, but northern and eastern populations migrate south for the winter, often in small flocks. It is a large thrush with pale grey-brown upper parts, a greyish-white chin and throat, and black spots on its pale yellow and off-white under parts. The sexes are similar in plumage, and its three subspecies show only minimal differences. The male has a loud, far-carrying song which is delivered even in wet and windy weather, earning the bird the old name of stormcock.
Found in open woods, parks, hedges and cultivated land, the mistle thrush feeds on a wide variety of invertebrates, seeds and berries. Its preferred fruits include those of the mistletoe, holly and yew. Mistletoe is favoured where it is available, and this is reflected in the thrush's English and scientific names; the plant, a parasitic species, benefits from its seeds being excreted by the thrush onto branches where they can germinate. In winter, a mistle thrush will vigorously defend mistletoe clumps or a holly tree as a food reserve for when times are hard.
The open cup nest is built against a trunk or in a forked branch, and is fearlessly defended against potential predators, sometimes including humans or cats. The clutch, typically of three to five eggs, is incubated for 12–15 days, mainly by the female. The chicks fledge about 14–16 days after hatching. There are normally two broods. There was a range expansion in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and a small decline in recent decades, perhaps due to changes in agricultural practices. Given its high numbers and very large range, this thrush is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern.


The mistle thrush was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name. Turdus is the Latin for "thrush", and viscivorus, "mistletoe eater", comes from viscum "mistletoe" and vorare, "to devour". The bird's liking for mistletoe berries is also indicated by its English name, "mistle" being an old name for the plant.
There are more than 60 species of medium to large thrushes in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish pointed wings, and usually melodious songs. A mitochondrial DNA study identified the mistle thrush's closest relatives as the similarly plumaged song and Chinese thrushes; these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa. They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird (T. merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.
At least eight subspecies have been proposed, but the differences between them are mainly clinal, with birds being paler and less densely spotted in the east of the range. The accepted subspecies as of 2000 are:
Turdus viscivorus viscivorus, named by Linnaeus, 1758, the nominate subspecies.
T. v. bonapartei, Cabanis, 1860.
T. v. deichleri, Erlanger, 1897.
An isolated population in Crimea has sometimes been separated as T. v. tauricus, but this is not considered to be a valid form. Mistle thrush fossils have been found in Pleistocene deposits from Poland and Sicily.


The mistle thrush is the largest thrush native to Europe. The nominate subspecies measures 27–28 cm (11–11 in) in length, with a 45 cm (18 in) wingspan. It weighs 93 to 167 g (3.3 to 5.9 oz), with an average of around 130 g (4.6 oz). It has a stocky upright posture when on the ground. It has pale grey-brown upperparts, the chin and throat are greyish-white, and the yellowish-buff breast and off-white belly are marked with round black spots. The spotting becomes denser on the lower chest, giving the appearance of a breast-band. The long tail has white tips on the outer feathers, and the underwing coverts are white. The eyes are dark brown and the bill is blackish with a yellowish base to the lower mandible. The legs and feet are yellowish-brown. There are no plumage differences between the sexes. Juveniles are similar to adults, but they have paler upperparts with creamy centres to many of the feathers and smaller spots on the yellowish underparts. By their first winter they are very similar to adults, but the underparts are usually more buff-toned.
The eastern subspecies T. v. bonapartei is 30 cm (12 in) in length, and therefore slightly larger than the nominate form. It is paler grey above and whiter below, with fewer black spots. Birds of intermediate appearance are seen west of the Ob River where the range overlaps with viscivorus. The southern race T. v. deichleri resembles bonapartei in appearance, but is closer in size to the nominate viscivorus, although it has a more slender bill.
Adults have a full moult after breeding, beginning between late May and the end of June, and completed by early October. Juvenile birds have a partial moult, replacing their head, body, and covert feathers; this is completed by October, although the start of the moult depends on when the chicks hatched.
The mistle thrush is much larger, paler and longer-tailed than the sympatric song thrush. In the western Himalayas it could be confused with both the plain-backed and the long-tailed thrushes. These are similar to the mistle thrush, but the plain–backed thrush lacks obvious wing bars, is more rufous above than its relative, and is barred rather than spotted below. The long-tailed thrush has olive-toned upperparts, bars on its breast and two wing bars. Juvenile mistle thrushes are superficially similar to White's thrush, but that species has golden-yellow plumage, scalloped underparts and a distinctive underwing pattern.


The male mistle thrush has a loud melodious song with fluted whistles, sounding like chewee-trewuu ... trureetruuruu or similar, repeated three to six times, and used to advertise his territory, attract a mate and maintain the pair bond. The tone resembles that of the song thrush or blackbird, but compared to its relatives the mistle thrush's repertoire is less varied and the delivery is slower. The song is, however, much louder, often audible up to 2 km (2,000 yd) away. The song is given from a treetop or other elevated position mainly from November to early June. The male is most vocal in the early morning, and its tendency to sing after, and sometimes during, wet and windy weather led to the old name "stormcock". The song may be heard in any month, although it is uncommon from July to August while the thrush is moulting. The main call, given by both sexes, is a dry chattering krrrr, louder when it is alarmed or excited. It is often likened to the sound of a football rattle, a form of musical ratchet. There is also a squeaky tuk contact call.


The mistle thrush breeds in much of Europe and temperate Asia, although it is absent from the treeless far north, and its range becomes discontinuous in southeast Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. In these warmer southern areas, it tends to be found in the milder uplands and coastal regions. Nominate T. v. viscivorus breeds in Europe and in Asia east to the Ob, beyond which it is replaced by T. v. bonapartei. The southern form T. v. deichleri is resident in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia.
The mistle thrush is a partial migrant: birds from the north and east of the range wintering in the milder areas of Europe and North Africa. Scandinavian and Russian birds start moving south from mid-September onwards, most birds wintering in Europe, western Turkey and the Middle East. Between mid-October and November, large numbers cross the Strait of Gibraltar and others pass through Cyprus, but there is hardly any migration across the North Sea. Breeding birds in the British Isles and north-west Europe are resident or move only short distances. In the Himalayas, the breeding population moves to nearby lower-altitude sites in winter. Return migration starts mainly from late March, although it can be a month earlier in the Middle East, and northern breeders may not arrive back on their territories until late April or early May. Migration may be by day or night, and typically involves individuals or small groups. Vagrant birds have occurred in the Azores, China, Crete, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Japan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sikkim and the United Arab Emirates. In the winter 2017/2018 the first record of a mistle thrush for North America was at Miramichi in New Brunswick.
The mistle thrush is found in a wide range of habitats containing trees, including forests, plantations, hedges and town parks. In the south and east of its range, it inhabits upland coniferous woodland and the range extends above the main tree line where dwarf juniper is present. Breeding occurs at up to 600 m (2,000 ft) in the mountains of North Africa, and occasionally much higher, to 1,700 m (5,600 ft). In the highlands of Europe, its preferred altitude is from 800–1,800 m (2,600–5,900 ft). More open habitats, such as agricultural land, moors and grassy hills, are extensively used in winter or on migration.
There is evidence that this species has changed its natural habitat in at least parts of its range. In Germany and elsewhere in central Europe, it was found only in coniferous forest until the mid-1920s when its range rapidly expanded, first into farmland, and then to suburbs and urban parks. The reasons for this expansion are unclear. In areas of intensive farming, such as eastern England, arable land has in turn largely been abandoned in favour of built-up areas with their greater variety of green habitats.
Perhaps the most notable find of the 118th Christmas Bird Count in Canada was a single vagrant mistle thrush found in Miramichi, New Brunswick. This was the first record for this species in North America. The discovery attracted many birders from Canada and the United States; sightings continued from early December 2017 through late March 2018.


Mistle thrushes are found as individuals or pairs for much of the year, although families forage together in late summer, and groups may merge to form large flocks when food sources are plentiful. It is not uncommon for up to 50 thrushes to feed together at that time of year. They roost at night in trees or bushes, again typically as individuals or pairs, except in late summer or autumn when families may roost together.
The mistle thrush is quite terrestrial, hopping with its head held up and body erect; when excited, it will flick its wings and tail. The flight consists of undulating bounds interspersed with glides.


Mistle thrushes breed in the year subsequent to their hatching; they are monogamous and stay as a pair throughout the year in areas where they are not migratory. Their territories are much larger than those of blackbirds or song thrushes; although the nest territory is only about 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres), around 15–17 ha (37–42 acres) is used for feeding. Territories are normally reoccupied in subsequent years. Territories are larger in woods than in farmland. The male will attack intruders into its breeding area, including birds of prey and corvids, and sometimes cats or humans. Courtship feeding of the female by her partner has sometimes been observed.
Breeding typically commences in mid-March in the south and west of Europe (late February in Britain), but not till early May in Finland. The nest is usually built in a tree in the fork of a branch or against the trunk, although hedges, ledges on buildings and cliff faces may also be used. The nest site may be up to 20 m (66 ft) above the ground, although 2–9 m (6.6–29.5 ft) is more typical. The common chaffinch often nests close to a mistle thrush, the vigilance of the chaffinch and the aggressive behaviour of the thrush benefiting both species. The thrush's nest is a large cup of sticks, dry grass, roots and moss, coated on the inside with a layer of mud and lined with fine grass and leaves. The nest is built by the female, although the male may help. Nests built early in the breeding season may be destroyed by bad weather.
The clutch is typically three to five eggs (range two to six), which are usually whitish-buff or greenish-blue and are spotted with red, purple or brown. The average size of the egg is 30 mm × 22 mm (1.18 in × 0.87 in), and weighs 7.8 g (0.28 oz), of which 6% is shell. The eggs are incubated for 12–15 days, mainly by the female. The chicks are altricial and downy, and are fed by both parents. They fledge about 14–16 days after hatching. There are normally two broods, except in Siberia, where there is only one, the male feeding the fledglings from the first brood while the female sits on the second clutch. Sometimes the same nest is reused for both broods. The young are dependent on their parents for 15–20 days after fledging.
In a study carried out in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year is 57 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate is 62 per cent. Life expectancy is typically three years, but the maximum age recorded from bird ringing recoveries is 21 years and 3 months for a bird shot in Switzerland.


Mistle thrushes feed mainly on invertebrates, fruit and berries. Animal prey include earthworms, insects and other arthropods, slugs and snails. Snails are sometimes smashed on a stone "anvil", a technique also used by the song thrush. The mistle thrush has been known to kill slowworms and the young of the song thrush, blackbird and dunnock.
Plant food includes the fruits and seeds of bushes and trees, mainly holly, yew, ivy and mistletoe, but also, for example, blackberry, cherry, elder, hawthorn, olive and rose. It may eat the flowers and shoots of grasses and other plants, and will take fallen apples and plums. It forages within its breeding habitat and in open fields, sometimes sharing these feeding areas with redwings or fieldfares.
Young birds are initially mainly fed on invertebrates, often collected from low foliage or under bushes rather than in the grassland preferred by the adults. Adults will roam up to 1 km (approximately 1,100 yards) from the nest on pasture or ploughed land. After fledging the young may accompany their parents until the onset of winter. Individuals or pairs will defend one or more fruit-bearing trees throughout the winter, with preference shown for trees which host mistletoe, the parasitic plant from which the bird derives its name. Where mistletoe is not present, holly is the most common tree chosen. Although the thrush normally feeds on the ground and from low bushes, the defence of this resource conserves fruit for later in the season when other food items become scarce. The trees are defended against other thrushes as well as birds such as the bullfinch and great spotted woodpecker. In milder winters with an abundance of fruit, however, this strategy is less used and thrushes can be observed foraging in flocks. Conversely, in hard winters, the defender may be overwhelmed by large flocks of fieldfares, redwings or Bohemian waxwings.
As its name implies, the mistle thrush is important in propagating the mistletoe, an aerial parasite, which needs its seeds to be deposited on the branches of suitable trees. The highly nutritious fruits are favoured by the thrush, which digests the flesh leaving the sticky seeds to be excreted, possibly in a suitable location for germination.


The mistle thrush is predated upon by a wide variety of birds of prey, including the boreal owl, short-eared owl, tawny owl, Ural owl, Eurasian eagle-owl, golden eagle, kestrel, common buzzard, red kite, northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, and sparrowhawk. The eggs and chicks may be targeted by cats and corvids. Parent birds exhibit fearlessness in defence of their nests, occasionally even attacking humans. The mistle thrush is not normally a host of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite.
External parasites of the mistle thrush include the hen flea, the moorhen flea, the castor bean tick and the brightly coloured harvest mite. Internally, they can suffer from parasites including tapeworm, nematodes, and Syngamus merulae (a species of Gapeworm). Blood parasites can include Trypanosoma and Plasmodium species.


The mistle thrush has an extensive distribution in Europe and western Asia, and its European breeding population is estimated at 9–22.2 million birds. When Asian breeders are added, this gives a global total of 12.2–44.4 million. The species was formerly more restricted in range, and rarely bred even in northern England in the 1700s. It expanded rapidly into lowland and coastal areas of Europe during the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, colonising areas where it was formerly rare or absent, such as Ireland (where it first bred in 1807), Scotland and the Netherlands. The range also increased in Denmark, Norway, Hungary and Austria.
Although the population now appears to be declining, the decrease is not rapid or large enough to trigger conservation vulnerability criteria. Given its high numbers and very large range, this thrush is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern. The perceived decline may be due to the loss of invertebrate-rich pastures and mixed farms through conversion to arable agriculture or more intensively managed grassland. Adult survival, clutch size and fledging success are all lower in arable landscapes than in areas with extensive pasture. In Finland, the loss of ancient forests is thought to have led to a local decline.


Desiderius Erasmus's early sixteenth-century collection of Latin proverbs included Turdus malum sibi ipse cacat, (the thrush himself excretes his own trouble), which refers to the use of the sticky mistletoe berries favoured by this species as an ingredient in birdlime, used to trap birds. The thrush was seen to be thus spreading the seeds of his own destruction.
Mistle Thrush and Alpine Chough, by Giovanni da Udine, an artist who worked in Raphael's studio in the 16th century, was a sketch for his Bird with Garland and Fruit, and this in turn was the basis for a Raphael fresco in the Apostolic Palace.
The early Renaissance poem "The Harmony of Birds" features a thrusshe (mistle thrush) singing the phrase "sanctus, sanctus", distinguishing the bird from the song thrush, the mauys or throstle. The song of the mistle thrush is also described in Thomas Hardy's "Darkling Thrush" and Edward Thomas's "The Thrush". The loud call of this common and conspicuous bird also led to many old or local names, including "screech", "shrite" and "gawthrush". Other names, including "stormcock" referred to its willingness to sing in wind and rain. "Holm thrush", "hollin cock" and "holm cock" are based on obsolete names for the holly tree, which may be defended by the thrush in winter for its berries.
In Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, Dickon reassures Mary Lennox that he will keep his knowledge of the garden secret by comparing her to a mistle thrush in defence of its nest, recognising his privilege in sharing her secret: "If tha' was a missel thrush an' showed me where thy nest was, does tha' think I'd tell any one? Not me," he said. "Tha' art as safe as a missel thrush."
The final verse of the Jethro Tull song "Jack-in-the-Green" from their album Songs from the Wood mentions the bird in the lines "Oh, the mistlethrush is coming. Jack, put out the light." The bird also features in the lyrics of The Decemberists' song "Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)" from their 2009 album The Hazards of Love: "Mistlethrush, Mistlethrush, Lay me down in the underbrush, My naked feet grow weary with the dusk".


Tussilago farfara, commonly known as coltsfoot, is a plant in the tribe Senecioneae in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and parts of western and central Asia. The name "tussilago" is derived from the Latin tussis, meaning cough, and ago, meaning to cast or to act on. It has had uses in traditional medicine, but the discovery of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant has resulted in liver health concerns.
Tussilago farfara is the only accepted species in the genus Tussilago, although more than two dozen other species have at one time or another been considered part of this group. Most of them are now regarded as members of other genera (Chaptalia, Chevreulia, Farfugium, Homogyne, Leibnitzia, Petasites, Senecio).


Coltsfoot is a perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by seeds and rhizomes. Tussilago is often found in colonies of dozens of plants. The flowers, which superficially resemble dandelions, bear scale-leaves on the long stems in early spring. The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer. The flower heads are of yellow florets with an outer row of bracts. The plant is typically 10–30 cm (3.9–11.8 in) in height. The leaves have angular teeth on their margins.


Coltsfoot has been used in herbal medicine and has been consumed as a food product with some confectionery products, such as Coltsfoot Rock. Tussilago farfara leaves have been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally (as tea or syrup) or externally (directly applied) for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, skin, locomotor system, viral infections, flu, colds, fever, rheumatism and gout. An extract of the fresh leaves has also been used to make cough drops and hard candy.
Coltsfoot is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Gothic and small angle shades. It is also visited by honeybees, providing pollen and nectar.


Tussilago farfara contains tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Senecionine and senkirkine, present in coltsfoot, have the highest mutagenetic activity of any pyrrolozidine alkaloid, tested using Drosophila melanogaster to produce a comparative genotoxicity test.
Two cases of supposed liver damage (and death) due to coltsfoot tea have been shown to actually be the result of mistaken identity. In one, coltsfoot tea causing severe liver problems in an infant was actually the result of Adenostyles alliariae (alpendost). In another case, an infant developed liver disease and died because the mother drank tea originally believed to contain coltsfoot during her pregnancy, but which was later shown to be Petasites hybridus (butterbur) or a similar species. In one 27-year-old male, ingesting a multicomponent herbal supplement that included coltsfoot may have caused him to develop non-lethal deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
In response, the German government banned the sale of coltsfoot. Clonal plants of coltsfoot free of pyrrolizidine alkaloids were then developed in Austria and Germany. This has resulted in the development of the registered variety Tussilago farfara 'Wien', which has no detectable levels of these alkaloids.


Typha angustifolia L. (also lesser bulrush, narrowleaf cattail or lesser reedmace) is a perennial herbaceous plant of genus Typha. This cattail is an "obligate wetland" species that is commonly found in the northern hemisphere in brackish locations.


The plant's leaves are flat, very narrow (¼"–½" wide), and 3'–6' tall when mature; 12–16 leaves arise from each vegetative shoot. At maturity, they have distinctive stalks that are about as tall as the leaves; the stalks are topped with brown, fluffy, sausage-shaped flowering heads. The plants have sturdy, rhizomatous roots that can extend 27" and are typically ¾"–1½" in diameter.


It has been proposed that the species was introduced from Europe to North America. In North America, it is also thought to have been introduced from coastal to inland locations.
The geographic range of Typha angustifolia overlaps with the very similar species Typha latifolia (broadleaf or common cattail). T. angustifolia can be distinguished from T. latifolia by its narrower leaves and by a clear separation of two different regions (staminate flowers above and pistilate flowers below) on the flowering heads. The species hybridize as Typha x glauca (Typha angustifolia x T. latifolia)  (white cattail); Typha x glauca is not a distinct species, but is rather a sterile F1 hybrid. Broadleaf cattail is usually found in shallower water than narrowleaf cattail.


Several parts of the plant are edible, including during various seasons the dormant sprouts on roots and bases of leaves, the inner core of the stalk, green bloom spikes, ripe pollen, and starchy roots. It can be prepared in the same way as Typha latifolia. The edible stem is called bồn bồn in Vietnam.


Typha orientalis, commonly known as bulrush, cumbungi, or raupō, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Typha. It is native to Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, China and the Russian Far East (Sakhalin and Primorye).
T. orientalis is a wetland plant that grows on the edges of ponds, lakes, salt marshes, and slow flowing rivers and streams.


Known as raupō in New Zealand, the plant was quite useful to Māori. The rhizomes were cooked and eaten, while the flowers were baked into cakes. The leaves were used for roofs and walls and occasionally for canoe sails, as well as a material for making kites. Māori introduced the plant to the Chatham Islands.


Typocerus zebra, the zebra longhorn, is a species of flower longhorn in the beetle family Cerambycidae. It is found in North America.


The thick-billed kingbird (Tyrannus crassirostris) is a large bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers.  This bird breeds from southeastern Arizona, extreme southwestern New Mexico, and northern Sonora, (the Madrean sky islands), in the United States and Mexico, through western and western-coastal Mexico, south to western Guatemala.
This is a large tyrant flycatcher, with adults measuring 23.5 cm (9.3 in) in length. Adults are dusky olive-brown on the upperparts with light underparts; they have a long dark brown or black tail. The underside is a dull white to pale yellow.  They have a yellow patch on their crown, but is not visible very often.  The bill on this species, for which it is named, is rather large and stocky compared to other members of this group and it is one of this kingbird's most distinguishing characteristics.  The call is a loud, whistled pwaareeet.
Thick-billed kingbirds usually occur in arid or partly arid areas in streamside riparian canyons, or open areas near water. They are particularly fond of sycamore woodland edges. They make a nest in a tree branch, usually close to the trunk above 6 meters high.  The female lays three to five eggs.
These birds are mostly resident in territories year round, but birds in the United States will retreat southward for the winter.
They wait on an open perch usually rather high or on top of the tree and fly out to catch insects in flight, (hawking).