Song Thrush: how to recognise it
A bird seen on most continents. Learn the marks that make it easy to identify, then practise with real photographs in Lore.
Practise with real photosAll species guides
Photo © Ximo Galarza · CC BY-NC-SA · iNaturalist · all photo credits
- Scientific name
- Turdus philomelos
- Family
- Thrushes
- Size
- About 22 cm
- Habitat
- Gardens, parks and woodland
- Found in
- Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Oceania
The key marks
Warm brown back with neat dark arrowhead spots on a buff breast and an orange-buff underwing. Mistle Thrush is bigger and greyer, with rounder spots, white tail corners and a white underwing.
Voice
Loud song with each phrase repeated two or three times; call a short 'tsip'.
Good to know
It smashes snail shells on a favourite stone, called an anvil, which you can find by the broken shells around it.
Do not confuse with
Compare it with the Mistle Thrush. Look at the marks above one by one rather than the overall colour, and practise telling the two apart with real photos.
Where and when
You can expect to find it in gardens, parks and woodland. Distribution changes with the seasons and from year to year, so check a recent local observation source before you go looking.