Feeder Talk
Varied thrush
When looking for words to best describe the varied thrush, the phrase dramatically beautiful certainly comes to mind. About the size and shape of the American robin, this fancy thrush sports a bold black band that resembles a necklace on its rich orange breast that contrasts with a blue-gray back, orange wing bars and a wide black stripe across its eye. Females are similar but paler.
Seeing this species is a treat, since varied thrushes are “not the kind of bird to sit out in the open,” says Maeve Sowles, president of the Lane County Audubon Society in Oregon. “You hear them more than you see them.”
These particular thrushes live year-round in the wet forests of the mild Pacific Coast—all the way from southeastern Alaska to Northern California. Females lay one to six sky blue eggs, sometimes speckled, in a woven cup that’s often decorated with moss.
Farther inland and north they are migratory, nesting in forests from Alaska to the mountains of Montana. They retreat southward and to lower elevations in autumn, when they often visit backyards and city parks.
Just like the first robin of spring, “the first report of a varied thrush in fall gets a lot of excitement!” Maeve says. She recommends opening a window on an autumn morning and listening for a very haunting yet distinct call.
The varied thrush sings a single drawn-out note, then pauses, then another note comes, and so on. “Each note grows out of nothing, swells to a full tone, and then fades away to nothing until one is carried away with the mysterious song,” ornithologist and bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes said in a handbook more than a hundred years ago.
Look for these ground feeders under trees and shrubs, often scratching aggressively in leaf litter for beetles, sowbugs, snails, worms and other morsels. “In fall and winter, they eat fruit and berries from trees and bushes,” Maeve says. “This includes crabapples, native salal, thimbleberry, cascara, snowberry and others—well, for as long as they last.”
To attract varied thrushes to your yard, scatter birdseed mix on the ground and offer suet in a wire cage. “Varied thrushes stay all winter,” Maeve says, “even in snow and ice storms. We don’t have cardinals, but a varied thrush in snow is just as impressive!”
This species is known for being a notorious wanderer outside of breeding season. It’s been sighted in every state of the Lower 48, often foraging in the midst of a flock of robins. Look closely and you, too, may spot this beauty.