| Hermit thrush | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Turdidae |
| Genus: | Catharus |
| Species: | C. guttatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Catharus guttatus (Pallas, 1811) | |
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| Synonyms | |
List
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The hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) is a medium-sized North American thrush.
It is not very closely related to the other North American migrant species of Catharus, but rather to the Mexican russet nightingale-thrush. [2] The specific name guttatus is Latin for "spotted", [3] though historically this species has been given 17 additional species or subspecies names by various authors, now all treated as synonyms. [4]
This species measures 15 to 18 cm (5.9 to 7.1 in) in length, spans 25 to 30 cm (9.8 to 11.8 in) across the wings and weighs 18 to 37 g (0.63 to 1.31 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 7.8 to 11.1 cm (3.1 to 4.4 in), the bill is 1.6 to 1.9 cm (0.63 to 0.75 in) and the tarsus is 2.7 to 3.3 cm (1.1 to 1.3 in). It is more compact and stockier than other North American Catharus thrushes, with relatively longer wings. [5] The hermit thrush has the white-dark-white underwing pattern characteristic of Catharus thrushes. Adults are mainly brown on the upperparts, with reddish tails. The underparts are white with dark spots on the breast and grey or brownish flanks. They have pink legs and a white eye ring. Birds in the east are more olive-brown on the upperparts; western birds are more grey-brown.[ citation needed ]
Hermit thrushes breed in coniferous or mixed woods across Canada, southern Alaska, and the northeastern and western United States. They are very rare vagrants to western Europe and northeast Asia. [6]
While most hermit thrushes migrate to wintering grounds in the southern United States and south to Central America, some remain in northern coastal US states and southern Ontario. [7] Identification of spotted thrushes is simplified by the fact that hermit thrush is the only spotted thrush normally found in North America during winter. [8]
Hermit thrushes make a cup nest on the ground or relatively low in a tree. They usually breed in forests, but will sometimes winter in parks and wooded suburban neighborhoods.
Hermit thrushes forage on the forest floor, as well as in trees or shrubs, mainly eating insects and berries.
The hermit thrush's song [9] has been described as "the finest sound in nature" [10] and is ethereal and flute-like, consisting of a beginning note, then several descending musical phrases in a minor key, repeated at different pitches. It often sings from a high open location. Analysis of the notes of its song indicates that they are related by harmonic simple integer pitch ratios, like many kinds of human music and unlike the songs of other birds that have been similarly examined. [10] [11]
The hermit thrush is the state bird of Vermont.
Walt Whitman construes the hermit thrush as a symbol of the American voice, poetic and otherwise, in his elegy for Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," [12] one of the fundamental texts in the American literary canon. "A Hermit Thrush" [13] is the name of a poem by the American poet Amy Clampitt. A hermit thrush appears in the fifth section ("What the Thunder Said") of the T. S. Eliot poem The Waste Land .
Former Canadian indie-rock band Thrush Hermit took their name from a reversal of the bird's name. It is also shared by the American bands Hermit Thrushes and Hermit Thrush.
The thrush nightingale, also known as the sprosser, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It, and similar small European species, are often called chats.
The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flycatchers. Thrushes are small to medium-sized ground living birds that feed on insects, other invertebrates, and fruit. Some unrelated species around the world have been named after thrushes due to their similarity to birds in this family.
The genus Catharus is an evolutionary clade of forest-dwelling passerine birds in the family Turdidae (thrushes), commonly known as nightingale-thrushes. The extant species are widely distributed across the Americas and are descended from a common ancestor that lived 4–6 million years ago. Most of the species are shy of humans, seldom leaving the cover of dense forest vegetation, where their activities are hidden from view. Thus, many fundamental aspects of their biology and life histories are poorly known.
The wood thrush is a North American passerine bird in the family Turdidae and is the only species placed in the genus Hylocichla. It is closely related to other thrushes such as the American robin and is widely distributed across North America, wintering in Central America and southern Mexico. The wood thrush is the official bird of the District of Columbia.
The veery is a small North American thrush species, a member of a group of closely related and similar species in the genus Catharus, also including the gray-cheeked thrush, Bicknell's thrush, Swainson's thrush, and hermit thrush. Alternate names for this species include Wilson's thrush and tawny thrush. Up to six subspecies exist, which are grouped into the eastern veery, the western veery or willow thrush, and the Newfoundland veery.
Swainson's thrush, also called olive-backed thrush and russet-backed thrush is a medium-sized thrush. It is a member of genus Catharus and is typical of it in terms of its subdued coloration and beautiful, ascending flute-like voice. Swainson's thrush was named after William Swainson, an English ornithologist.
The gray-cheeked thrush is a medium-sized thrush. This species is 15–17 cm (5.9–6.7 in) in length, and has the white-dark-white underwing pattern characteristic of Catharus thrushes. It is a member of a close-knit group of migrant species together with the veery and Bicknell's thrush; it forms a cryptic species pair with the latter. The gray-cheeked thrush is all but indistinguishable from Bicknell's thrush except by its slightly larger size and different song. The two were formerly considered conspecific. Of all the American spotted thrushes, the gray-cheeked has the most northern breeding range.
Bicknell's thrush is a medium-sized thrush, at 17.5 cm (6.9 in) and 28 g (0.99 oz). One of North America's rarest and most localized songbirds, it breeds on coniferous mountain tops and disturbed habitats of northeastern North America. While very similar in appearance and vocalization to the gray-cheeked thrush, the two species, with two completely different breeding ranges, differ slightly in their morphology and vocalizations. It was named after Eugene Bicknell, an American amateur ornithologist, who made the first scientific discovery of the species on Slide Mountain in the Catskills in the late 19th century. John Burroughs, in his essay, "The Heart of the Southern Catskills" (1886), writes effusively about the voice of Bicknell's thrush heard near the summit on his climbs of Slide Mountain, and how on his stays on Slide saw them nowhere else but "about the summit", and saw no other thrush but Bicknell's.
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a long poem written by American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) as an elegy to President Abraham Lincoln. It was written in the summer of 1865 during a period of profound national mourning in the aftermath of the president's assassination on 15 April of that year.
The black-billed nightingale-thrush is a small thrush endemic to the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama. Its position in the genus Catharus is somewhat equivocal, but it is apparently closer to the hermit thrush than to the other nightingale-thrushes except the russet nightingale-thrush and/or the ruddy-capped nightingale-thrush.
The ruddy-capped nightingale-thrush is a small thrush which is a resident breeder in mountain forests from central Mexico to western Panama. A predominantly brown-plumaged bird, it has a rich song.
The orange-billed nightingale-thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, and heavily degraded former forest.
The yellow-throated nightingale-thrush or Gould's nightingale-thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae native to Central America. It was first described in 1855 by the English ornithologist John Gould.
The slaty-backed nightingale-thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
The black-headed nightingale-thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.
The russet nightingale-thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is endemic to Mexico.
The groundscraper thrush is a passerine bird of southern and eastern Africa belonging to the thrush family, Turdidae. It was previously considered the only member of the genus Psophocichla, but phylogenetic analysis supports it belonging in the genus Turdus, of which it is the most basal species.
The spot-backed antshrike is a species of bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
The Kurrichane thrush is a species of bird in the thrush family Turdidae. The species is found from central through to southern Africa. Its natural habitat is dry savanna and woodland, predominantly miombo woodland.
The speckled nightingale-thrush or Sclater's nightingale-thrush is a species of bird in the thrush family Turdidae native to South America.
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