hermit thrush

It is not very closely related to the other North American migrant species of Catharus, but rather to the Mexican russet nightingale-thrush.{{Cite journal |last=Winker |first=Kevin |last2=Pruett |first2=Christin L. |date=2006 |title=Seasonal migration, speciation, and morphological convergence in the avian genus Catharus (Turdidae).] |url=https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/123/4/1052/5562824 |journal=The Auk |language=en |volume=123 |issue=4 |pages=1052 |doi=10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[1052:SMSAMC]2.0.CO;2 |issn=0004-8038}} The specific name guttatus is Latin for "spotted",{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher= Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n111 111]}} though historically this species has been given 17 additional species or subspecies names by various authors, now all treated as synonyms.Halley, M.R. (2019) The misidentification of Turdus ustulatus Nuttall, and the names of the nightingale-thrushes (Turdidae: Catharus). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 139(3): 238-259. DOI:10.25226/bboc.v139i3.2019.a6

This species measures {{convert|15|to|18|cm|in|abbr=on}} in length, spans {{convert|25|to|30|cm|in|abbr=on}} across the wings and weighs {{convert|18|to|37|g|oz|abbr=on}}. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is {{convert|7.8|to|11.1|cm|in|abbr=on}}, the bill is {{convert|1.6|to|1.9|cm|in|abbr=on}} and the tarsus is {{convert|2.7|to|3.3|cm|in|abbr=on}}. It is more compact and stockier than other North American Catharus thrushes, with relatively longer wings.Thrushes by Peter Clement. Princeton University Press (2001). {{ISBN|978-0691088525}} The hermit thrush has the white-dark-white underwing pattern characteristic of Catharus thrushes. Adults are mainly brown on the upperparts, with reddish tails. The underparts are white with dark spots on the breast and grey or brownish flanks. They have pink legs and a white eye ring. Birds in the east are more olive-brown on the upperparts; western birds are more grey-brown.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Hermit thrushes breed in coniferous or mixed woods across Canada, southern Alaska, and the northeastern and western United States. They are very rare vagrants to western Europe and northeast Asia.Brazil, Mark (2009) Birds of East Asia {{ISBN|978-0-7136-7040-0}} page 402

While most hermit thrushes migrate to wintering grounds in the southern United States and south to Central America, some remain in northern coastal US states and southern Ontario.[http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/hermit_thrush/id Hermit Thrush], All about Birds Identification of spotted thrushes is simplified by the fact that hermit thrush is the only spotted thrush normally found in North America during winter.{{Cite web|url=https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwdsite/learn/identification/thrushes-allies/hermit-thrush.php|title = Hermit Thrush|date = 9 February 2015}}

Hermit thrushes make a cup nest on the ground or relatively low in a tree. They usually breed in forests, but will sometimes winter in parks and wooded suburban neighborhoods.

Hermit thrushes forage on the forest floor, as well as in trees or shrubs, mainly eating insects and berries.

The hermit thrush's song{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/birdwatchernj/birdsongs/thrush_hermit_837.wav |title=Hermit Thrush Song |access-date=2008-07-26 |format=WAV |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071031084720/http://www.geocities.com/birdwatchernj/birdsongs/thrush_hermit_837.wav |archive-date = 2007-10-31}} (Through The Internet Archive) has been described as "the finest sound in nature" and is ethereal and flute-like, consisting of a beginning note, then several descending musical phrases in a minor key, repeated at different pitches. It often sings from a high open location. Analysis of the notes of its song indicates that they are related by harmonic simple integer pitch ratios, like many kinds of human music and unlike the songs of other birds that have been similarly examined.{{cite web

| last = Brahic | first = C. | title = Thrush's song fits human musical scales

| publisher = New Scientist | date = 2014-11-04 | access-date = 2014-11-04 | archive-date=2014-11-05| url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26498-thrushs-song-fits-human-musical-scales.html

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141105144508/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26498-thrushs-song-fits-human-musical-scales.html}}{{Cite journal | last1 = Doolittle | first1 = E.L. | last2 = Gingras | first2 = B. | last3 = Endres | first3 = D.M. | last4 = Fitch | first4 = W.T. | date = 2014-11-03 | title = Overtone-based pitch selection in hermit thrush song: Unexpected convergence with scale construction in human music | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 111 | issue = 46| pages = 16616–16621| doi = 10.1073/pnas.1406023111 | pmid=25368163 | pmc=4246323| bibcode = 2014PNAS..11116616D | doi-access = free }}

The hermit thrush is the state bird of Vermont.

Walt Whitman construes the hermit thrush as a symbol of the American voice, poetic and otherwise, in his elegy for Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,"{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/142/192.html |title=When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd |access-date=2008-07-26 |last=Whitman |first=Walt |work=Bartleby }} one of the fundamental texts in the American literary canon. "A Hermit Thrush"{{cite web |url=http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15322 |title=A Hermit Thrush |access-date=2008-07-26 |last=Clampitt |first=Amy |work=The Academy of American Poets |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509154750/http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15322 |archive-date=2008-05-09 |url-status=dead }} is the name of a poem by the American poet Amy Clampitt. A hermit thrush appears in the fifth section ("What the Thunder Said") of the T. S. Eliot poem The Waste Land.

Former Canadian indie-rock band Thrush Hermit took their name from a reversal of the bird's name. It is also shared by the American bands Hermit Thrushes and Hermit Thrush.

The hermit thrush appears as a symbol of hope amid despair in Thomas Hardy’s 1900 poem The Darkling Thrush, written at the turn of the century to reflect the melancholy and uncertainty of the modern age.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-19 |title=Hermit Thrush Symbolism - Spiritual Messages And Significance |url=https://sabiduri.com/hermit-thrush-symbolism/ |access-date=2025-06-08 |website=Sabiduri |language=en-US}}

File:Hermit thrush in Prospect Park (15404).jpg|Adult in New York City, showing reddish tail

File:HermitThrush63.jpg|Ocala National Forest, Florida 2008

File:Catharus guttatus.ogv|Hermit thrush singing

File:20231024 hermith thrush south meadows PND08226.jpg|East Hartford, Connecticut

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Catharus guttatus|Hermit thrush}}

{{Wikispecies|Catharus guttatus}}

• [http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i7590id.html Hermit thrush - Catharus guttarus] - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• [https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hermit_Thrush Hermit thrush species account] - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• {{EBirdSpecies|herthr|Hermit Thrush}}
• {{VIREO|Hermit+Thrush|Hermit thrush}}
• {{IUCN_Map|22708667/137548137|Catharus guttatus}}

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hermit thrush

hermit thrush

Category:Native birds of Alaska

Category:Birds of Canada

Category:Native birds of the Northwestern United States

Category:Native birds of the Northeastern United States

Category:Birds of the Sierra Nevada (United States)

Category:Symbols of Vermont

hermit thrush

hermit thrush

Category:Articles containing video clips