Comments on: ID Workshop: Use 4 Basic Keys Plus Migration Timing to Sort Out Your Thrushes

By: EllieK

EllieK — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 23:57:00 +0000

In September, I found a bird on a street in Boston. I have been trying to identify it. It looks like Veery or Hermit Thrush. It has reddish brown feathers on its wings and back. It has brown spots on its chest feathers. It perches, but prefers to sit at the bottom of the cage at night. It whistles/sings at night. I thought it is a common nightingale, but it has not been observed in America. I don’t know what I found.

By: Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 21:46:00 +0000

In reply to Hugh. OK but you do not have to analyse the whole of Canada. Surely you could select from the area of southern Canada where there is sufficient density of observations. After all that is where most of us live ! Michael

By: Dee

Dee — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 22:31:16 +0000

Had a little reddish brown bird a little bigger then a hummingbird, it almost sounds like a rattlesnake..

[This comment has been migrated from an earlier post version by Cornell Lab staff.]

By: Daniel Long

Daniel Long — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:42:49 +0000

Thanks for this great article. I managed to get a picture of a brownish bird just this morning and was having difficulty identifying it. After reading this post, I have determined that it is indeed a Veery…my first! I’ve been birding for almost three years as a new hobby in Florida and information such as this makes it more enjoyable. Thank you!

By: Julie H

Julie H — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 01:13:34 +0000

A suggestion for tricky bird ID is to include the description and photos of newly fledged brown thrashers along with the thrushes. The dark eyes, darker plumage, and shorter tails than the adult thrashers could be confusing. Also, brown thrashers begin fledging early in the spring when thrushes are migrating.

By: cynthia mcclain

cynthia mcclain — Tue, 13 May 2014 22:17:15 +0000

The red tail, and the act that they tend to wag or flick their tails, which in this photo, it appears that the tail is in an upward position.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Tue, 13 May 2014 22:15:05 +0000

I knew it to be a Hermit thrush right away. The rusty tail was a good clue, plus, they like to wag their tails, which, this one looks like it is doing.

By: Gay Sherlock

Gay Sherlock — Sat, 10 May 2014 04:15:30 +0000

I so enjoyed this….am waiting for MY hermit thrush to show up….my day will be complete and I won’t go too many places until I know that he (or she) is again on his way to another area….

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 09 May 2014 20:11:16 +0000

This is a great article. Thank you!

By: Frances S

Frances S — Fri, 09 May 2014 13:04:39 +0000

I have a question? How are these birds related to thrashers? I was in SW Texas for a time and we had a Long-billed thrasher coming to our water drip. He looked alot like this bird pictured. He was a hoot. He chased off other birds that came to bathe in the pan. And no bird I have ever seen takes as good a bath as he did. Fairly wallowed in it. The water did more to draw in birds than any feeder we ever put out.
Thanks
Frances