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Hermit Thrush

Catharus guttatusOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Thrushes (Turdidae)

Hermit Thrush Portrait
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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

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Range Map for Hermit Thrush
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Catharus guttatus
Length6.75 Inches
Wingspan11.5 Inches

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush: Small thrush, with olive-brown to red- or gray-brown upperparts, black-spotted white underparts and rufous tail. Distinct white eye-ring. Pink legs, feet. Swift direct flight, may hover briefly over prey. Considered to have one of the most beautiful songs of all North American birds. The state bird of Vermont.

● Song: "tuck"

● Foraging & Feeding: Hermit Thrush: Eats insects, small invertebrates, fruits, and forbs. Forages on both the ground and in vegetation; may move leaf litter with its bill to look for food.

● Breeding & nesting: Hermit Thrush: Three to six green blue eggs, sometimes flecked with black, are laid in a well-made cup of moss, leaves, and rootlets concealed on the ground or in a low bush in the forest. Incubation ranges from 12 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Hermit Thrush: Veery has red-brown upperparts and much paler breast spots. Wood Thrush is browner and has larger breast spots.

Flight Pattern

Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.
Hermit Thrush Body Illustration
● Range & 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.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
PopulationFairly common
MigrationMost migrate
Weight1.1 Ounces