Mistle Thrush

The name Mistle Thrush comes from the bird's fondness for mistletoe berries, which plant it helps spread.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Turdus viscivorus
Family: 
Thrushes and Chats
Family Latin name: 
TURDIDAE
Category: 
Birds
Vernacular names: 

Stormcock

Species description

Species description

The name comes from its fondness for mistletoe berries, which plant it helps spread.  It is a resident breeder and Winter visitor, whose numbers have declined considerably.  165,000 pairs were recorded in 2016, giving a conservation status of RED.  As one of our earliest breeders, it will often lay in February.  Its folk name is Storm Cock, as it sings in bad weather, and it is said to presage rain if it sings from the top of a high tree into the wind.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

Thrushes are predominantly unspecialised, omnivorous, ground foragers. Many are brown, the colour of turds, hence the family name. Most are monogamous, some being highly gregarious in the non-breeding season like our Winter thrushes, the Redwings and Fieldfares. Thrushes are melodious singers, and among the earliest contributors to the dawn chorus.

Category information

The earliest feathered dinosaur fossils date from the early Cretaceous, but the ancestry of birds goes further back to Jurassic theropod dinosaurs, which shared a common ancestor with the crocodilians. Well known theropod groups include the tyrannosaurs, allosaurs, and other carnivores. Of surviving bird groups, the most ancient are the ratites (ostriches, rheas, tinamous, moas, kiwis, cassowaries, and emus), followed in evolutionary order by the waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans) and then the land fowl (chickens, turkeys, pheasants and their kin). Heene cemetery’s most ancient bird visitors are the woodpigeons. Strictly, therefore, we ought to refer to birds as dinosaurs, for they are direct descendants. The RSPB would be more accurately restyled as the RSPD. Where known, the conservation status of each bird is given as red, amber, or green, according to its survival potential based on 2016 populations and recent population trends.

Birds are warm-blooded, and have feathers, toothless, beaked jaws, and a strong, lightweight skeleton. They lay hard-shelled eggs. Their hearts have four chambers, and their metabolic rate is high. Although most are adapted for flight, many can also run, jump, swim and dive. Flightless birds retain vestigial wings. Brown, green, and grey are the commonest bird colours, for camouflage.

Protections