Wood Thrush – Superb Forest Singer
Article by Ava Steenstrup
The Wood Thrush is the largest of North America’s spotted thrushes. The crown, nape, and upper back are a warm cinnamon brown, while the back wings and tail are a more muted brown. The breast and belly are white with large dark brown spots on the breast, sides, and flanks. It has white eyerings and pale pink legs. Both the male and female birds are similar in appearance.
The Wood Thrush, as its name suggests, can be found inhabiting woodlands, particularly deciduous and mixed forests with large trees, dense shade, and undergrowth. They often prefer a damp forest near streams or springs than in drier woods. Widespread across most of the eastern United States and into southern Canada, this species is most likely to be spotted in the underbrush or on the forest floor.
The ethereal flutelike “ee-oh-lay” song, given mostly by the male Wood Thrush, is one of the most hauntingly beautiful sounds in the eastern forest. Like all songbirds, they have a Y-shaped voice box called a syrinx. It allows them to sing pairs of notes simultaneously. Singing starts just before daybreak, is sporadic during the day, and then starts again at dusk until dark.
The Wood Thrush is an omnivore and feeds mostly on the forest floor. They can be seen hopping around in leaf litter and on the ground under the forest canopy, gleaning insects and probing the soil with their bills. They use their bill to turn over leaves in search of prey. Their diet consists of many insects, especially in breeding season, including beetles, caterpillars, ants, crickets, moths and occasionally spiders, earthworms, snails, and small salamanders. Berries and small fruits are eaten at all seasons.
Wood Thrushes begin nesting by the end of spring or early summer. The female typically chooses the nesting site, constructs a cup-shaped nest of weeds, dried leaves, moss, grass, and mud bordered by fine twigs or roots in trees, and usually lays three to four eggs. Both parents feed the nestlings and clean the nest. Wood Thrushes on average raise two broods per season.
The destruction and fragmentation of forests has resulted in both increased nest predation from jays, crows, raccoons, and domestic cats and increased cowbird parasitism and are major factors in the Wood Thrush's decline. Another threat is acid rain. Calcium-rich materials are particularly important to female Wood Thrushes for eggshell production. Where acid deposition is higher, less calcium remains in the soil and is not available to insects and other invertebrates which reduces calcium intake by Wood Thrushes.
Did you know? Wood Thrushes use a behavior known as "anting." Anting occurs when a bird picks up a single ant or group of ants and rubs them on its feathers. The purpose of this behavior is unknown, but it is thought that some of the ants’ secretions may help protect them from other insects, or it might supplement the birds’ own preen oil.