Identification

Its brown plumage and speckled chest is typical of a thrush. It lacks the white eye stripes of a Redwing and so is most easily mistaken for a Mistle Thrush.

The Song Thrush, however, is smaller, more neatly proportioned, with warm brown upperparts and a rather dark face.

It lacks the white tips to the corners of the tail and the white edges to many of the wing feathers shown by a Mistle Thrush.

The underwing coverts are clearly orange, but not as deep and red as in a Redwing, which is a potential source of confusion.

Habitat

Breeds and winters in gardens, farmland, woodland and hedges.

Behaviour

Likes to feed on snails which of course defend themselves by retracting into their shells. The thrush's solution to this is to hold the snail in its bill and swing its head so the shell smashes against a hard rock.

A thrush may use the same rock many times resulting in a litter of smashed shells. The smack of a shell against the rock can sometimes be heard from some distance.

Migration

A mainly resident bird although some birds are migratory.

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