Song Thrush
Turdus philomelos
Is the sound of a Song Thrush enjoyable?
The answer may depend on how close to your bedroom window one is singing, and how many minutes before sunrise it began.
Song Thrushes are powerful, improvisational performers. The variety for which they are famed makes them absorbing to listen to. It can also be quite confusing.
The key to identifying them by song is the way they repeat a note or a short phrase several times, before switching to something else and repeating that instead.
The number of Song Thrushes has declined sharply in recent decades. They are still to be found in most woodlands, and in many large gardens, parks and wooded countryside areas, but they are nowhere near the everyday sight and sound they once were.
During the first lockdown in 2020, the arrival of a Song Thrush in our neighbour’s garden was cause for excitement, and a wobbly video from our bedroom window.
For us, that song is most welcome (and the hawthorn blossom will be too).