Wood Thrush
Hylocichla mustelina

The song of the Wood Thrush is extraordinarily clear and rich, echoing through the tall trees at dawn and dusk. The song has three distinct movements that follow each other rapidly: the first section is rather staccato, the second flute-like and crystalline, while the third is a shrill, bell-like trill. Without this telltale song, the Wood Thrush, with its discreet plumage and behaviour, might easily go unnoticed.

Slightly smaller than the American Robin, the Wood Thrush is the largest of our thrushes. During the breeding season, this bird is usually seen on the ground and in the lower layers of vegetation in maple stands and other mature forests. The Wood Thrush is affected by the fragmentation of woodlands.

In May, the males come back first to the territories they occupied the previous year, generally in damp undergrowth beneath tall deciduous trees, where there is dense shrub cover and thick leaf litter. They then defend their territory by singing loud and long. The females arrive a few days later.

The Wood Thrush feeds mainly on insects, which it finds in the leaf litter or near the ground. In the fall, it adds berries to its menu.

The female chooses the location of the nest by herself and generally builds it on a low branch or in the fork of a tree concealed in dense forest, about 1.5 to 4.5 m from the ground. She builds the cup-shaped nest out of bits of grass, plants and mud and lines the inside with rootlets. She then lays three or four greenish-blue eggs, which she incubates alone for 12 to 14 days. The nest is often parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird, and the thrush generally tolerates the intruder, to the detriment of her own brood. After the young hatch, the female continues to incubate them alone, but the male participates in feeding the young until the age of 32 days. Wood Thrushes usually produce only one brood a year.