Least ConcernMistle Thrush
Turdus viscivorus
47 countries259 parks
Species group · Birds
WAnimals has 4 species of thrush, in the family Turdidae.
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 48 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It sings through a gale, which earned it the English nickname stormcock.
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Its scientific name means mistletoe eater, and it is the plant's main disperser in Europe: the seeds pass through its gut and stick to branches when the bird wipes its bill, planting them exactly where they will germinate.
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A single bird can defend a berry-laden tree all winter, driving off every other thrush and securing the larder until spring.
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It migrates at night, and its calls carry down to the ground as it passes.
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In the olive groves of southern Spain a study found that 86% of its winter diet was plant matter, and of that fraction 97% was olives: in the Altiplano of Granada they call it "aceitunero", the olive-eater.
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It is so nomadic and so unfaithful to its wintering areas that the Iberian wintering population can swing between several million and a few thousand from one year to the next.
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The colony defends its nests by bombarding predators with droppings.
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It defends the colony by bombing predators with droppings: several adults dive at a corvid or a raptor and fire faeces that mat its plumage, and there are documented cases of raptors left unable to fly.
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