Thrushes

Hi Frances... I had not seen any song thrushes in my garden or at my feeders until this year when two arrived at once (rather like an avian equivalent of a supermarket Buy One Get One Free!) . They are now daily visitors to my bird table. Perhaps they are simply changing territories slightly.

Thanks for your reply. Funny creatures, birds, aren't they; there's no knowing why they are there and then why they're not. I do miss the thrushes, though, I love their spotted hint-of-apricot breast feathers. I don't know if they've suffered a decline in their numbers, but an awful lot of species have.

Hi Frances

We have always been lucky to have Song and Mistle Thrushes in our garden.  I feel that they are much shyer birds that do not adapt so well as Blackbirds do.  They tend to skirt around the edges of the garden hiding under bushes Then when the coast is clear then amble across to the feeders and eat the seeds, and then scuttle of back into the undergrowth in the garden area.

We have seen them devour 'large' snails by the dozen from our back garden area.  So they are great pest removers - if you are a gardener and keep the pests from the garden area.

I have always put out a good selection of birdfood and additional birdfeeders on the ground. I have seen Song Thrushes happily hopping over to eat from the Ground Feeders, but they are much less likely to stay around than say the Blackbirds do.

Another issue which has been observed is that the Blackbirds tend to dominate the scene.  They do chase of the Song Thrushes, and Song thrushes tend not to fight back.   So out of all the Thrushes the Blackbirds seen to rule the roost on the garden department.

Song Thrushes are much shyer, more retiring birds, and that is why we do not see them as much as we want too. If only that was not the case

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Squirrel B said:

Hi Frances... I had not seen any song thrushes in my garden or at my feeders until this year when two arrived at once (rather like an avian equivalent of a supermarket Buy One Get One Free!) . They are now daily visitors to my bird table. Perhaps they are simply changing territories slightly.

 

"Another issue which has been observed is that the Blackbirds tend to dominate the scene.  They do chase of the Song Thrushes, and Song thrushes tend not to fight back.   So out of all the Thrushes the Blackbirds seen to rule the roost on the garden department."

That's interesting as my blackbirds (two pairs) are quite civilised and polite towards other birds. The only times they get agitated are either when they are waiting to take food for their young (but then all my regulars become agitated at those times) or if they feel a particular bird or birds is hogging the table - at which point they become very vocal!

Squirrel

Frances S said:

Thanks for your reply. Funny creatures, birds, aren't they; there's no knowing why they are there and then why they're not. I do miss the thrushes, though, I love their spotted hint-of-apricot breast feathers. I don't know if they've suffered a decline in their numbers, but an awful lot of species have.

The song thrush is ‘red listed’ as a bird of serious conservation concern. There are anecdotal reports of population declines since at least 1950. The long term monitoring carried out by the British Trust for Ornithology shows that song thrushes in the UK experienced a major population decline between the mid 1970s and the mid 1990s. Declines were most  pronounced on farmland, where the population decreased by about 70%. Although there has been a slight recovery in recent years, the population is still only marginally above the low point of 1995.

The decline was caused by a combination of lack of food and lack of nesting sites, both brought about by the intensive farming methods widely practiced in the UK today. Loss of hedgerows and wet ditches removed feeding and nesting sites, while increased land drainage and tillage are likely to have reduced the number of earthworms and other crucial invertebrate prey available to song thrushes on farmland. Grazed permanent pasture (especially cow pastures) and woodland are ideal habitats with plenty of food for song thrushes. Both these habitats have been lost or degraded in most lowland arable areas. In areas of intensive arable agriculture, most song thrushes now breed in, or close to, gardens.