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Bird of the Month
by Carolyn Preston

Wood Thrush

The Wood Thrush has cinnamon brown upperparts with a boldly spotted white breast.  It’s loud flute-clear ee-oh-lay song rings through the trees in the summer.  A songbird like this requires 10-15 times as much calcium to lay a clutch of eggs as a similar size mammal needs to nurture its young.  Calcium-rich food like snail shells is crucial to successful breeding.   They are very vulnerable to nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds, which lay their eggs in other birds’ nests.   Some species refuse to raise these eggs, but the Wood Thrush accepts them as their own.  The birds can sing duets with themselves, with one note is each of its y-shaped voicebox.

 

The Wood Thrush feeds mostly on leaf-litter invertebrates such as beetles, flies, caterpillars, spiders, ants, etc.  Fruits like blueberry, holly, pokeweed, dogwood, black cherry and black gum make up most of the rest of their diet.  They eat more fruit as they get closer to migration to gain fat.

 

The female begins nest building by laying down a platform of dead grass, leaves, and stems, ending up with a cup that is 4-6 inches across.  She stamps the floor tight then lines the cup with mud which she smooths with her breast.  She finally adds a covering of rootlets to bed the eggs.  The process takes 3-6 days.  A pair often raises two broods a year using two nests often within 300 feet.  The nest holds 3-4 eggs which hatch in 12-15 days.  The nestling period is 12-15 days, and the hatchlings have eyes closed, are helpless with only wisps of gray down.

 

Wood Thrushes are on the Yellow Watch list for birds most at risk of extinction without conservation actions due to loss of habitat, exposure to predators such as raccoons, jays, crows and the Brown-headed Cowbird.  They are also susceptible to the effects of acid rain which can leach calcium from the soil, robbing the birds of vital calcium rich prey.  The oldest known Wood Thrush was a male at least 10 years 2 months old.

Wood Thrush Nest

Wood Thrush Nesting

Juvenile Wood Thrush

Adult Wood Thrush

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