Veery

Catharus fuscescens

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family TURDIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A tawny thrush of damp deciduous forests, the Veery is the least spotted of all the American spotted thrushes and one of the easiest to identify.

Cool Facts

• Long thought to winter across the northern third of South America, but a recent study indicated that, in fact, the wintering grounds of the Veery are restricted to central and southern Brazil.

• A study of migration using radio telemetry showed that the Veery can fly up to 285 km (160 mi) in one night, and that it can fly at altitudes above 2,000 m (1.2 mi).

Description

• Size: 17-18 cm (7-7 in)
• Wingspan: 28-29 cm (11-11 in)
• Weight: 28-54 g (0.99-1.91 ounces)

• Medium-sized thrush.
• Upperparts tawny brown.
• Throat and chest buffy, with indistinct reddish brown spots.

• Belly grayish white.
• Legs and feet pale.
• Eye dark.
• Bill dark with pale base to lower mandible.
• Western birds darker brown on back with more spotting on chest.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike.

Immature

Like adult.

Similar Species

• Most populations distinguished from other thrushes by the warmer brown of upperparts. Darker western birds distinguished by plainer face and gray (not olive or buff) flanks.
• Western form of Swainson's Thrush has less distinct eyering and is most similar to western Veery. Distinguished by more buffy coloration on cheek, less reddish in wing, more rufous or olive flanks, and voice.

Sound

Song a resonating, ethereal "da-vee-ur, vee-ur, veer, veer," descending slightly in pitch. Call note is a nasal "phew" or "veer."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from central British Columbia eastward to Newfoundland, southward to Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Colorado, and Oregon. Also farther south in Appalachians and Rockies.

Winter Range

Winters in South America, in central and southeastern Brazil.

Habitat

Breeds in damp, deciduous forests and riparian habitats. Prefers disturbed forest with denser understory. Also in shrubby habitats with small trees.

Food

Insects and other arthropods, fruit.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages mostly on ground, some flycatching. Flips over dead leaves.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a cup of dead leaves, grapevine bark, weed stems, and wet, mud-like leaf mold, lined with fine rootlets and fibers. Placed on ground, at base of or slightly up in small trees.

Egg Description

Pale greenish blue, only rarely spotted.

Clutch Size

Usually 4 eggs. Range: 1-5.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with some sparse down.

Conservation Status

Slow decline throughout range.

Other Names

Grive fauve (French)
Tordo rojizo (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

1. Moskoff, W. 1995. Veery (Catharus fuscescens). In The Birds of North America, No. 142 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
2. Remsen, J. V., Jr. 2001. True winter range of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens): lessons for determining winter ranges of species that winter in the tropics. Auk 118: 838-848.