Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) lives in eastern deciduous forests across North America, Central America, southern Mexico. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
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A real field recording of the Wood Thrush, made in the wild.
At just under a foot long, the wood thrush measures 18 to 21.5 cm (7.1-8.5 in) with a 30-40 cm (12-16 in) wingspan and weighs 48-72 g (1.7-2.5 oz), making it a compact but sturdy flyer. In the wild its longest recorded age is 8 years 11 months, a benchmark that shows the species can survive nearly a decade despite high predation and habitat loss. This lifespan sets a ceiling for how many breeding cycles an individual can contribute to the dwindling population.
Only the male sings, and he can produce two notes at once, giving the wood thrush's song an ethereal, flute-like quality that sounds like two voices overlapping. The song has three parts, a low-pitched "bup, bup, bup" intro, a loud "ee-oh-lay" middle phrase, and a rapid, non-harmonic trill, and each male builds a personal repertoire from these building blocks.
Wood thrushes travel an average of 2,200 km each spring and fall, flying at night and using stars and Earth's magnetic field to stay on course. They leave their winter homes in low-land forests of southern Mexico to Panama and arrive on the U.S. Gulf Coast in the first week of April, then push northward to breeding sites across eastern North America. This long, nocturnal trek makes them vulnerable to habitat loss on both continents.
A breeding territory can be as small as 800 m² but may expand to 28,000 m² (960-33,490 sq yd), and pairs will defend patches as tiny as 0.4 ha (0.99 ac). Larger, moist, leaf-littered forests with trees over 16 m (52 ft) tall and a dense shrub layer give the highest nesting success, while tiny fragments raise predation and cowbird parasitism. This size sensitivity shows why forest fragmentation directly cuts reproductive output.
Since 1966 the wood thrush population has dropped about 50 %, making it a barometer for the health of eastern North American songbirds. The decline is linked to forest fragmentation that spikes nest predation and brown-headed cowbird parasitism, plus loss of primary forest on its Central American wintering grounds, which forces birds into poorer habitats and raises mortality. Even though it remains classified as Least Concern, the species' steep decline signals broader ecosystem stress.
Sources
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RangeNorth America, Central America, southern Mexico
HabitatEastern deciduous forests
DietInsects and fruit
About the Wood Thrush
In the dappled depths of eastern North America's forests, the Wood Thrush weaves its gentle way, a master of understated elegance as it navigates the leafy understorey with soft, deliberate steps. With each muted flutter of its brown-speckled wings, the thrush embodies a quiet confidence, its large, dark eyes drinking in the subtleties of its surroundings as it searches for the ripest fruits and most succulent invertebrates. As it sings its haunting, flute-like melody, the Wood Thrush conjures an aura of serene enchantment, its very presence a reminder of the forest's hidden, unsung beauty.
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