Hermit Thrush

Catharus guttatus

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family TURDIDAE

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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

The Hermit Thrush is the only member of its genus to spend the winter in North America. It changes its diet from eating nearly entirely insects in summer to one of equal parts insects and fruit in winter.

Cool Facts

• In the Appalachian Mountains the Hermit Thrush is displaced at lower elevations by the Veery and at higher elevations by Swainson's Thrush, leaving the middle altitudes for the Hermit Thrush.

• East of the Rocky Mountains the Hermit Thrush usually nests on the ground. In the West, it is more likely to nest in trees.

Description

• Size: 14-18 cm (6-7 in)
• Wingspan: 25-29 cm (10-11 in)
• Weight: 23-37 g (0.81-1.31 ounces)

• Medium-sized thrush.
• Brown back, reddish tail.
• Black spots on chest.
• Thin white eyering.
• Cocks tail up and flicks wings frequently; lifts tail up quickly, lowers it slowly.

• Bill pale at base, tip black.
• Eastern and northern birds more reddish, grayer in West; intermediate along Pacific Coast.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike

Immature

Like adult.

Similar Species

• Browner races of Swainson's Thrush similar, but have buffy eyering and a strong buffy wash to lower cheeks and breast, and tail does not contrast strongly with back.
• Gray-cheeked and Bicknell's thrushes have only a partial eyering, and the tail does not contrast as sharply with the back. The Bicknell's Thrush may have a chestnut tail, but not as bright rufous.

Sound

Song a melodious, fluty warble, mostly on one pitch, starting with a clear whistled note.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southern Alaska through Canada, southward to northeastern states and into Appalachians, and in West southward to southern Arizona.

Winter Range

Winters from southern Arizona to southern Missouri and Connecticut, southward to the Gulf of Mexico and through Mexico to El Salvador. Also up Pacific Coast to southern British Columbia.

Habitat

• Breeds in interior of deciduous, mixed, and coniferous forest, favoring internal forest edges.
• Winters in moist and dense cover of woody growth, forests, open woodlands, and in the northern part of range especially in ravines and sheltered sites.

Food

Insects and other arthropods, fruit.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages on ground by watching for movement, and by digging in leaf litter.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a bulky cup of grasses, leaves, mosses, twigs, rootlets, hair, mud, and lichens, lined with fine rootlets, fine grasses, hair, moss, bark, and willow catkins. Placed on ground, or low in small trees.

Egg Description

Color: Light blue with occasional brown flecks or spots.

Size: 19.6-25.0 mm x 15.4-18.3 mm
(0.8-1.0 in x 0.6-0.7 in)

Incubation period: 11-13 days.

Clutch Size

2-5 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with some sparse down.
Chicks fledge in 11-12 days.

Conservation Status

Populations increasing slightly continentwide.

Other Names

Grive solitaire (French)
Zorzalito colirrufo (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Jones, P. W., and T. M. Donovan. 1996. Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). In The Birds of North America, No. 261 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.