Wood Thrush

The Wood Thrush has a pot-bellied body, short tail, straight bill, big head, and upright posture. Definitely one of my favourite calls in the forest early morning.

Wood Thrushes are warm reddish-brown above and white with bold black spots on their underparts. Juveniles show a somewhat muted version of the same pattern. All have a bold, white eyering.

I love this image as it shows the bold black spots, the pot belly, the straight bill and upright posture as well as the beautiful reddish brown colouring.

The reclusive Wood Thrush hops through leaf litter on the forest floor, probing for insects, bobbing upright between spurts of digging and leaf-turning. The male's clear, flute-like song echoes through the forest in spring and early summer, and both sexes make distinctive, machine-gun-like alarm notes.

The Wood Thrush breeds in deciduous and mixed forests in the eastern U.S. where there are large trees, moderate understory, shade, and abundant leaf litter for foraging. They winter in lowland tropical forests in Central America. Cornell All About Birds