Song thrush

From the picnic area, you can hear an early song thrush singing from the trees at the bottom of Sleepers.

It is the male thrush that sings. He chooses a high perch in his territory and sings loudly in characteristically repeated melodic phrases. It is his habit of repeating song phrases three or four times that makes it so easy to distinguish him from a singing blackbird.

Song thrushes photographed in the reserve by DKG

In the UK, song thrush numbers are falling and their Conservation Status is amber but come the spring in the reserve, ideal thrush habitat, it will sound as if there is a song thrush singing from every tree.

Header image: Song thrush by Simon Chinnery [CC BY-SA 4.0]
Audio: Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos)” from xeno-canto by David Bissett.