Sitka Singers: Thrushes

I got an e-mail today from someone wondering about resources for learning the common singing birds of Southeast Alaska. Of course I’m most familiar with Sitka, but there are probably only a few other species that are commonly heard singing in the Southeast, and most of those would be limited to the mainland or nearby islands. There are lots of resources available for listening to recordings of bird songs, but often the hard part is figuring out how to find the one you heard and are trying to identify. That’s where it can be helpful to start with a list of the expected birds for a given area. As far as I know there is not such a list limited to common singing birds of Southeast, so I thought I would put one together with some notes about their occurrence in the Sitka area and a link to the all about birds page with recordings for the species. (I have recordings of most of our common singers, so perhaps in the end I’ll pull this series together with local recordings for people to reference.)

First up the thrushes. The Varied Thrush and American Robin have distinctive songs that are unlikely to be confused with anything else. Hermit Thrush and Swainson’s Thrush have songs that are somewhat similar to each other, and for the beginner, it may be easiest to just work on recognizing that it’s one of these, but relax about trying to tell them apart consistently at first.

• Varied Thrush
  • Distinctive and simple buzzy-whistle song unlikely to be mistaken for anything else
  • Sometimes called the ‘telephone bird’ the song also is reminiscent of a coach’s whistle heard from a distance
  • Some birds overwinter in the area and nesting activity (and associated singing) starts relatively early
  • Varied Thrush sounds page at all about birds
• American Robin
  • Well known throughout North America, the song is sometimes described as “cheerily cheery-oh” (or similar variations)
  • No other species likely to be confused with this one in our area (though there are robin-like songs by birds not expected to occur here)
  • Migrants generally arrive by sometime in March, with males usually arrive first. Territories get set up sometime after that
  • Common in mixed open and forested habitats from sea level to tree line; often present in residential areas
  • American Robin sounds page at all about birds
• Hermit Thrush
  • Flute-like ethereal song unlikely to be confused with any other local breeder except for Swainson’s Thrush
  • Listen for the initial (briefly) held note with the song then going up or down from there
  • Typically arrive no later than the first couple of days of May and start singing within the first week
  • Commonly heard from sea level to treeline mostly in areas at least adjacent to forest.
  • Hermit Thrush sounds page at all about birds
• Swainson’s Thrush
  • Flute-like ethereal song unlikely to be confused with any other local breeder except for Hermit Thrush
  • After typically starting on a short note repeated once or twice the song seems to spiral up from there
  • Usually arrive around the start of the fourth week of May and start singing within a week of arrival
  • Mostly found in lower elevations, where not at low elevation, probably associated with stands of alder.
  • Swainson’s Thrush sounds page at all about birds