Song thrush

About

The Song thrush is smaller than the blackbird: 20–23 cm long. The upper body is uniformly brown, the underside is creamy-white, densely covered with dark spots resembling arrow tips. The male and female are colored alike.

This bird is easiest to find by its song. The male sings from the top of a tree at dawn and in the evening twilight. The song is loud, flute-like, composed of short phrases, and each thrush repeats each phrase two to four times before moving on to the next. It is these repetitions that distinguish it from the blackbird, which sings smoothly and without repeats.

In the Carpathians, the Song thrush inhabits deciduous, mixed, and spruce forests with undergrowth from the foothills to the upper tree line, as well as parks and old gardens. It feeds on earthworms, insects, and in autumn, berries. It particularly loves snails: the bird breaks the shell against a stone, and near such an 'anvil' on the path, there is often a pile of fragments.

The nest is built low in a tree or in bushes. Inside, it is smooth, as if plastered: the bird coats the cup with a mixture of decayed wood and clay. The eggs are bright blue with black spots.

This is a migratory bird: it arrives in March and departs in September — October.

Where in the Carpathians

Teal — roughly where the species can occur, by elevation and habitat; orange — where naturalists recorded it (GBIF, CC0/CC BY).

Range: elevation belt and forests — our model (AWS Terrain Tiles; © OpenStreetMap)

Countries

Ukraine · Slovakia · Czechia · Poland · Hungary · Romania · Serbia · Austria · BG

Mountain ranges

nearly all Carpathian ranges, in the forest belt

Altitude belts

Foothills (below 600 m) · Beech forests (600–1200 m)

When to see it

From naturalists’ observations in the Carpathians (iNaturalist, research grade): the darker the cell, the more often the species is seen that month.

Protection and rules

Not listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.

FAQ