THRUSHES
There are six thrush species across the UK. Of these two are only found visiting in winter.
Thrushes are small to medium sized songbirds,with an omnivorous diet that largely consists of insects, invertebrates and berries. A distinctive characteristic is a distinctly speckled breast. The blackbird male is black all over, but this is visible in the female.
The BLACKBIRD, see index.asp?pageid=731629, is very familiar and covered in its own section. Others include the field fare and mistle thrush, but we focus here on the one you are most likely to see in West Dunbartonshire, the Song Thrush.
SONG THRUSH : Turdus philomelos
This bird is very familiar to most of us, scuttling around in the undrgrowth in parks and gardens, woodland and scrub looking for morsels. when in full song mood though, it will be seen at higher vantage points. It is brown above, with a white belly covered in black, drop-shaped spots.
As its name suggests the song thrush has a beautiful, loud song with repeating phrases. Widespread throughout Europe and as far east as Siberia, populations in the north are migratory, heading to Africa, whereas our song thrushes tend to be residents. Song thrushes breed from March until April, often producing three broods of up to five blue, spotty eggs. [Scottish wildlife Trust].
A song thrush joyfully entertains the world early one morning in Halkett Park in Alexandria.
While usually considered a shy bird, this one seemed to enjoy having a human audience and glanced back to acknowledge appreciation of its song.
BIRD FACT : https://birdfact.com/articles/thrushes-in-the-uk
RSPB : https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/song-thrush
SCOTTISH WILDLIFE TRUST : https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/species/song-thrush/
