Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Stealthy Hermit Thrush
By: Tom Berg
Many birds are somewhat secretive. The hermit thrush is one of those stealthy birds. These inconspicuous birds tend to move around and hunt for insects in the brushy undergrowth of woodlands and along the edges of northern forests. They seem to like the safety of the shadows.
When hermit thrushes are out in the open, they are fairly easy to identify. They are larger than most sparrows and smaller than an American robin. Adults are a deep brown color on their wings, back and head, which blends in nicely with the leaf litter on the forest floor where they hunt for food. Their breast is a dull white color with many dark spots and splotches on it. Their tail is a reddish-orange hue, which is one of the key factors in identifying them.
The hermit thrush usually feeds on the ground, flipping dry leaves and kicking up the leaf litter with their feet as they move along. This exposes small insects like crickets, ants, beetles, spiders and earwigs (among others). They tend to walk or hop forward by a foot or two and then stop to look for more insects. They often cover a lot of ground while feeding.
There are several species of thrushes native to North America, and there are actually 191 species of thrushes worldwide. In North America, the hermit thrush is the first thrush specie to migrate north in the springtime and they are typically the last to head south in the late fall. During the summer breeding season most hermit thrushes can be found in Canada and in the thick forests of the northeastern United States. There are also populations in the mountainous western USA.
During the winter, hermit thrushes spend much of their time in the south and southeastern USA, and all the way south into Mexico. However, many individuals overwinter farther north – as far north as Kentucky, southern Missouri, southern Ohio and southern Pennsylvania. As soon as winter loosens its icy grip, those thrushes will be headed north again!
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