Thursday 7 February 2008

Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush differences

I've been a birdwatcher for over 8 years now and it came to me today when I saw a thrush, that I still struggle with the difference between the song and mistle thrush.
I look in books and still have problems with identifying them, so I thought why not make my own guide to knowing the difference. I combined all the information I had in books and magazines together to make something i'd remember.
With an image of each bird, I made this:





I hope it's as useful for you as it is to me. I'll also add the flight pattern for each thrush as well, in due course.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trust me it is impossible to tell the difference! I've heard mistle thrushes are the ones that sing at the top of trees and song thrushes are the ones that hang around near hedgerows. Am I right?
@ xxx

Anna Simpson said...

Yeah your right with that, mistle thrush do more often than not sing in trees. The mistle thrushs song is also a lot harsher while the song thrush has quite a mellow song, in comparison.

Clair Matthews said...

very helpful - thank you x

colin said...

a song thrush nest is very tidy, while a mistle thrush has a nest full of bits of rubbish paper and they are very keen to defend it this may help if you see them nesting in spring

colin said...

a mistle thrush is a bit of a bully it will chase other birds away from a good food source.