Educate Yourself About the Varied Thrush and Other Thrushes
Varied Thrush
The Varied Thrush resembles the American Robin, and has a short tail, relatively long neck, obvious pale wing stripe, wide black band across a rusty breast, and an orange eye-stripe. Its length is 9-10in (23-25cm) Its wingspan is 16in (41cm) Its voice is a single song with a long whistle on one pitch, repeated every 10 seconds, and its call is a short, low, dry “chup”. Their eggs are blue, with evenly marked brown spots and speckles; they will have 2 clutches of 3-5 eggs. The female incubates the eggs for about 14 days, and their fledging time is unknown. Both male and female feed their young.
The female has a gray stripe over the eye; the male has a black striped one.
Varied Thrushes migrate as far as southern California in the winter time, but their usual home is the moist forests of the Pacific Northwest. The population peaks every two to three years and then decline, and winter snows often leads to starvation, because they are ground feeders like the robins, and their food supply is buried. When times are hard they usually feed next to roadsides, and will frequently show up at your fully stocked, hanging bird feeders, and bird feeding tables in your friendly bird feeding garden.
The Varied Thrush will feed on the ground, often in leaf litters, searching for bugs and insects, and pull out earthworms from your lawn. Very funny to watch!! They will also feast on acorns, and eat fruits from the Spicebush, the Elderberry, the Virginia Creeper, and the Dogwood. 40 percent of their diet during the breeding season is different kinds of plant food; witch will increase to 75 percent in the winter time.
The female witch has a gray striping over the eye, instead of the black stripe on the male, will build their nests in a small hemlock, fir, spruce or willow, on a horizontal branch, 10-15ft (3-4.5m) up high. The female will sit on the eggs, while her mate sings to protect his domain.
To attract the Varied Thrush to your bird feeding garden, plant trees like hemlock, spruce or junipers for nesting and cover places, and berry-producing shrubs, like snowberry, elderberry, madroneberry, and or oakberry. Fill your Hanging bird feeders with mixed seeds of millet and cracked corn. For more information on bird attracting trees and plants in your region, go to our section on BIRD ATTRACTING TREES AND PLANTS at our website www.BIRDFEEDERSUSA.com
