Wood Thrush

For Throwback Thursday, here's a bird from around 5 years ago. Back when I was working at Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia [1] I would walk through on-premises woods and meadows where I met this Wood Thrush 1 summer. This is another thrush that's fairly similar to ones like the Hermit Thrush and the Swainson's Thrush.

They are considered 1 of the best singers among our song birds. They achieve this because they can sing 2 notes at the same time, and do it in harmony. While males of many birds perform song matching, where a bird sings a song and a rival tries to sing the same song, the more individualistic Wood Thrush will counter a rival's song with a distinct song of their own.

Like some other birds, they also have a clever technique to raise as many children as possible in a breeding season. They'll have 1 brood, and before their young are ready to fend for themselves the female will go off and start another brood, leaving the male to provide for the 1st brood. 

July 26, 2018 at Murray Hill Campus
Photo 22913339, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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