General

Hermit Thrush: Small thrush with olive-brown to red- or gray-brown upperparts, black-spotted white underparts, and rufous tail. White eye-ring is distinct. Sexes are similar. Only thrush that repeatedly lifts its tail.

Range and Habitat

Hermit Thrush: Breeds from central Alaska east to Newfoundland and south to southern California, northern New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Virginia. Spends winters from Washington and southern New England southward. Preferred habitats include coniferous and mixed forests; deciduous woodlands and thickets are favored during migration and winter.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tuck"

Interesting Facts

 In the Appalachian Mountains the Hermit Thrush is displaced at lower elevations by the Veery and at higher elevations by Swainson's Thrush.

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

 Walt Whitman construes this bird as a symbol of the American voice, poetic and otherwise, in his elegy for Abraham Lincoln, 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'.

 A group of thrushes are collectively known as a "hermitage" and a "mutation" of thrushes.

Author

Gary Owen Dick