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Swainson's Thrush

(Catharus ustulatus)
Banded September 1, 1998 - Carmel, Indiana

General Information

The Swainson's Thrush, named in honor of the early 19th century English ornithologist William Swainson, spends it summers in the coniferous forests of Canada and the northern US, and its winters from southern Mexico through to Argentina. Its diet consists of beetles, ants, bees, caterpillars, spruce bud moth, mosquitoes, other insect pests, and an assortment of berries. Migratory movements are at night. Its distinctive call sounds like a drop of water "whoit." Its song is an upward sounding spiral like "whip-poor-will-a-will-e-zee-zee-zee."

The Swainson's Thrush is uniformly brownish above.

Figure 1 - Adult Swainson's Thrush

Figure 2 - Adult Swainson's Thrush

The buffy eye-ring, upper breast and cheeks distinguish the Swainson's Thrush from the similar Gray-cheeked Thrush.

The white breast is heavily spotted.

Figure 3 - Adult Swainson's Thrush

Figure 4 - Feather Emargination

In the hand, the Swainson's Thrush can be distinguished from the similar Gray-cheeked Thrush by the lack of emargination on primary number 6 (fourth feather from the top).

Young birds show buffy tips on the greater coverts.

Figure 5 - Juvenile Coverts

Figure 6 - Swainson's Thrush Upper Wing

Adult birds lack the buffy tips on the coverts. The upper wing is uniformly brownish.

Thrushes have 10 primary flight feathers. IN the Swainson's Thrush, the tenth flight feather (small feather by my finger tip).is much reduced

Figure 7 - The Tenth Primary Flight Feather

Figure 8 - Undertail of Swainson's Thrush

The undertail coverts are white.

The underwing is light brown and shows a whitish central band.

Figure 9 - Underwing and Flank

Figure 10 - Upper Tail

The upper tail is also brownish showing little or no contrast with the back.

Nesting Behavior

Swainson's Thrushes nest in northern coniferous forests, preferably in dense thickets along streams. The female builds a cup nest of twigs, mosses and some mud. From 3 to 4 eggs are incubated by the female hatch in 10 -13 days. Young are tended by both parents, and leave the nest in 10 - 12 days.

Banding Recoveries

The Bird Banding Lab web site reports that between 1955 and 1997, a total of 336,581 Swainson's Thrushes were banded. Of these, only 225 have ever been recovered, a very low recovery rate of 0.07%. Banding studies show that the Swainson's Thrush are long distance migrants that can live up to 3 years in the wild. If you should recover a banded bird, please report the band number to the Bird Banding Lab by calling 1-800-327-BAND.

Conservation Status

The Swainson's Thrush performs a valuable economic service by consuming large numbers of insects pests. Their taste for berries also provides an ecologically important service as the undigested seeds of elderberries, raspberries, wild cherries, blackberries, twinberries and others that pass through the digestive tract are dispersed into new areas. Data show that populations of these thrushes are declining in many regions. Here at Chipper Woods Bird Observatory, many juveniles are captured in the fall migration, indicating successful breeding in the region north of us.

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