Song Thrush

Scientific Name: Turdus philomelos

Population Estimate: 80M - 200M

Range / Habitat: Partial migrant throughout Europe, most of Asia and northern Africa. Introduced species to Australia and New Zealand, where it lives year-round. Found in forest, shrub land, and artificial habitats.

Field Notes: Medium-sized passerine with typical thrush habitus and behavior. Brown upperparts, buffy breast with bold dark brown spots. Spotted breast differentiates it from other passerines in New Zealand.

Personal Notes: Well-named bird with a beautiful song, seen widely throughout New Zealand. 

Veery

Scientific Name: Catharus fuscescens

Population Estimate: 14M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Full migrant from damp forests of northern US and southern Canada in summer to most of central northern South America in winter.

Field Notes: Medium-sized thrush, plain brown upperparts, no eye ring, minimal brown spotting on otherwise white underparts. Swainson's Thrush with distinct pale spectacles and more extensive spotting on breast.

Personal Notes: First seen in beautiful Spearfish Canyon, SD. Later found closer to home in Hok-Si-La Park in Lake City, MN.

Mountain Bluebird

Scientific Name: Sialia currucoides

Population Estimate: 5.2M

Range / Habitat: Ranch land and other open areas of the American West. Winters extending into Mexico. Summers extending into Canada.

Field Notes: Slight thrush. Male bright blue back, duller blue underneath. Bill, eye and legs black. No other markings. Female duller grey / blue. Eastern Bluebird and Western Bluebird similar but both have red on their breasts. Lazuli Bunting with short, thick bill, white wing bars, and extensive white on chest and belly. Townsend's Solitaire similar to female but with white eye ring and wing bars.

Personal Notes: Seen in various montane locations in Wyoming and Montana.

Black-faced Solitaire

Scientific Name: Myadestes melanops

Population Estimate: Unknown, but Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Endemic to tropical montane moist forest in Costa Rica and Panama.

Field Notes: Medium-sized passerine, overall slate grey with black mask, orange bill, orange feet. Has a piercing, resonant call, reminiscent of a squeaky gate.

Personal Notes: Seen at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica

Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush

Scientific Name: Catharus mexicanus

Population Estimate: 50-500K

Range / Habitat: Mature montane wet forests between 300 and 1300m in southern Mexico and Central America.

Field Notes: Somewhat leggy thrush with beautiful song. Brown back, grey head with black cap, white underparts. Bright orange / yellow bill, eye ring and legs. Iris is dark which helps distinguish from Slaty-backed Nightingale-thrush.

Personal Notes: Seen at Arenal Hanging Bridges, Costa Rica

Western Bluebird

Scientific Name: Sialia mexicana

Population Estimate: 1.4M

Range / Habitat: A bird of open forests found in the American West and throughout Mexico.

Field Notes: Medium-sized songbird, small thrush. Male with bright blue on wings, tail and head. Chest and flanks rufous, belly white with some blue, as in lower photo. Female more subdued, as above. Eastern Bluebird with rufous throat, no rufous on shoulders or back, no blue on belly. Mountain Bluebird with same brilliant blue but no rufous. 

Personal Notes: A nice surprise for us in Central Mexico.

Wood Thrush

Scientific Name: Hylocichla mustelina

Population Estimate: 14M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Summers in the eastern US and into Canada. Winters in southeastern Mexico down through Central America. Prefers interior moist forest.

Field Notes: Secretive thrush of the forest floor. Back all brown, belly white with distinct black spots that extend to the belly. Distinctive song. Hermit Thrush with less distinct spots that do not reach the belly. Brown Thrasher with longer tail and streaks, not spots, on the breast.

Personal Notes: Above photo from Chaa Creek Resort in Belize. 

Hermit Thrush

Scientific Name: Catharus guttatus

Population Estimate: 60M

Range / Habitat: Summers in western US, throughout Canada and into Alaska. Winters in the southern US and into Mexico.

Field Notes: Medium-sized thrush with brown / grey back and reddish tail. Black spots on chest. Thin white eye ring. Swainson's Thrush quite similar but lacks the contrasting tail.

Personal Notes: If it looks like a thrush, and acts like a thrush….
 

Rufous-backed Robin

Scientific Name: Turdus Rufopalliatus

Population Estimate: Unknown but Least Concern status

Range / Habitat:  Its main range extends from southeastern Sonora to the southeastern corner of Oaxaca along the coast and in the Río Balsas drainage. The isolated populations in Mexico City and Oaxaca City are probably descended from escaped cage birds. A number of vagrants have reached the Mexican-border states of the United States, where they are often found in riparian woods.

Field Notes: The Rufous-backed Thrush (Turdus rufopalliatus) is a songbird of the thrush family. It is endemic to the Pacific slope of Mexico. It is named for the adult's rufous or olive-rufous upper back, which contrasts with the grayish head, nape, and rump. The chest and flanks are also rufous. The belly and undertail coverts are white; the throat is white with many black streaks. The bill and eye-ring are yellow. Females are typically somewhat duller-colored than males. Juveniles, like other juvenile Turdus thrushes, are spotted below; they are browner and have pale flecks above.

Personal Notes:

White-throated Thrush

Scientific Name: Turdus Assimilis

Population Estimate: 500K to 5M

Range / Habitat: It is found in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States.

Field Notes: The White-throated Thrush (Turdus assimilis) is a species of bird in the Turdidae family. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Personal Notes:

Townsend's Solitaire

Scientific Name: Myadestes townsendi

Population Estimate: 800K, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Found year-round in the mountainous western United States. Its range will extend some to Canada and Alaska in the summer and to lower elevations and parts of Mexico in the winter.

Field Notes: Handsome grey, long-tailed songbird with rounded head, white eye ring and understated buffy wing bars. Can have some blue to its lower back, tail. Feeds on juniper berries.

Personal Notes: This bird used to fool us, but we're onto him now! Finally heard their beautiful song in Mount Helena Park. 

American Robin

Scientific Name: Turdus migratorius

Population Estimate: 320M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round throughout most of the US in both woodlands and more populated areas. Winters extending into Mexico. Summers extending throughout Canada and Alaska.

Field Notes: Common, yes, but still quite striking. Robins have a white patch under their tail that can be conspicuous in flight. Juveniles has spotted breast as in the top photo.

Personal Notes: 

Clay-coloured Thrush

Scientific Name: Turdus grayi

Population Estimate: 20M

Range / Habitat: Found in open and semi-open areas of eastern Mexico to northern Columbia.

Field Notes: Medium-sized passerine with pale bill and legs. Overall brown, darker on top than underneath. May show some streaking under chin. White-throated Thrush has pronounced streaked white throat and white undertail coverts. Other similarly colored thrushes found at much higher altitudes.

Personal Notes: Also called the Clay-colored Robin. In Costa Rica known as the Brown Robin, where it is, endearingly, their national bird.

Redwing

Scientific Name: Turdus iliacus

Population Estimate: 65M - 130M

Range / Habitat: It breeds in northern regions of Europe and Asia, from Iceland south to northernmost Scotland, and east through Scandinavia, the Baltic States, northern Poland and Belarus, and through most of Russia to about 165°E in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

Field Notes: It is 20–24 cm long with a wingspan of 33–34.5 cm and a weight of 50–75 g. The sexes are similar, with plain brown backs and with dark brown spots on the white underparts. The most striking identification features are the red flanks and underwing, and the creamy white stripe above the eye.

Personal Notes: Typical Turdus-like behavior, just in Iceland.

Swainson's Thrush

Scientific Name: Catharus ustulatus

Order: Passeriformes

Population Estimate: 100M

Location of Sighting: Minnesota River Valley, Minneapolis, MN

Date of Sighting: October, 2009

Notes: Similar to the Hermit Thrush but the latter has black on its chest. The long, resonant song of the Swainson's was a familiar accompaniment to our Summer 2011 back-country hikes in the Black Hills, Bighorn and Absoroka/Beartooth Mountains.

Eastern Bluebird

Scientific Name: Sialia sialis

Population Estimate: 10M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in southeastern US and central Mexico. In summers extending north into the upper midwest and eastern Canada. Prefer meadow habitat, often seen perching on wires and nest boxes.

Field Notes: Medium-sized songbird, small thrush. Plump with round head. Male with bright blue on wings, tail and head. Chest, neck and flanks rufous, with striking white belly. Western Bluebird with blue throat, often rufous on shoulders or back, some blue on belly.

Personal Notes: We will always think of the Arboretum in Minneapolis with their bluebird boxes.