The thrush bird is very common. Only in the territory of the CIS lives 20 species of thrushes out of 62 available throughout the world. The blackbird chirps beautifully and can compete with the beauty of its singing only with the nightingale. Birds settle in clean forest thickets and in park areas where there is the necessary amount of food.

Genus: Thrushes

Family: Thrush

Class: Birds

Order: Passerines

Type: Chordates

Kingdom: Animals

Domain: Eukaryotes

Thrush Anatomy

Thrushes are medium or small passerine birds, up to 33 cm in length. The birds have rounded heads and thin, pointed beaks, with small bristles at the very base. The shape of the wings is different - from relatively short and rounded to longer and pointed (in nomadic species).

The tail of the thrush is of moderate length, the tip of which is usually square in shape, and in some species it is slightly rounded. The nails are quite long and strong, but in South American hermit thrushes they are short and weak. The color of thrushes is very diverse and depends on its type.

Where does the thrush live?

Thrushes are not picky in choosing the plan of the area where they settle, the type of forest for them is not particularly important. Sometimes they live in the steppes, deciduous forests. And song thrushes only relatively recently began to settle in city parks, although before that they preferred to live away from humans, their nesting sites were located closer to juniper bushes, or next to spruce trees.

What does a thrush eat?

The thrush bird is an omnivore, but for the most part, they prefer to feed on worms, insects, butterflies and caterpillars. They also feed on seeds, various fruits and berries. Their diet depends on the time of year and weather conditions.

Thrush lifestyle

Thrushes are migratory birds, but the departure for wintering is greatly extended in time, so this happens imperceptibly. In the spring they return in small flocks or alone. If the year turned out to be fruitful for berries, then the birds fly away much later, and such a species as fieldfare can generally stay for the winter. Thrushes build their nests on trees and stumps, in some cases they can build their nests on the ground, in places inaccessible to predators.

Thrush breeding

Most thrushes are monogamous and breed in well protected areas. Thrushes can breed chicks twice a year. The eggs are incubated by the female, the male can sometimes replace her for a short time. The female incubates from 3 to 7 eggs.

After 2 weeks, chicks appear, they are helpless and need parental care. The male and the female are engaged in feeding, the chicks are fed every 3-4 minutes with berries and insects. Chicks leave their nest on the 12th - 15th day.

If you liked this material, share it with your friends on social networks. Thank you!

Birds are classified as warm-blooded creatures. Their average body temperature is 41°C, which means that they can be active in cold weather provided they have enough food. Due to the lack of food, many birds leave their homes and fly to warm countries with the arrival of cold weather. There they will have the opportunity to find a lot of food. Migratory birds include the thrush, which we will discuss in the article.

Brief description of thrushes

Thrushes are passerines. Thrushes are called more than a dozen species of birds. They all differ from each other in appearance, size and habitat. Thrushes are famous singers and are considered forest dwellers. Nowadays, this bird species has become more sociable, therefore, to settle in urban green areas. In the evening and morning hours, the townspeople have the opportunity to enjoy the singing of singing birds. At the very beginning of summer or spring, birds sing even at night.

Birds are distinguished by a slender physique and a strong thin beak. They have strong claws, and the body length can be from 17 to 28 cm. The weight of the feathered one varies, the weight depends on the species, it can be ranging from 85 to 110 grams. Appearance and color may also differ depending on the species. The plumage of most species has brown and brown spots. The most modest color of feathers is black, and the stone thrush is distinguished by a brighter plumage. They have a very mobile tail, if the tail twitches, this is a signal of alarm and danger. There are two types of thrushes that can be kept at home in a cage:

• singing;
• black.

About 2 dozen species are found on the territory of Russia, but the most common are:

• fieldfare,
• black;
• singing;
• red brow;
• mess.

In total, there are 62 species of thrushes in the world, many of them live in Asia, America and Europe. Birds move very interestingly, jumping and crouching at the same time. These singers are shy, active and intelligent. Their life expectancy is up to 17 years.

Habitat

Thrushes inhabit almost the entire planet, they are not only in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as on oceanic islands. If we talk about whether migratory thrushes are birds or not, then it is impossible to answer this question unambiguously. Thrush in temperate latitudes are migratory birds, and in the rest they rarely leave their homes.

There are many migratory thrushes, and most of them arrive very early at their nesting sites. They also leave them late, flying to warmer climes. They live mainly in deciduous and coniferous forests, but some species can also live on the plains. Thrush nests are built on shrubs and trees. Birds settle mainly in forests, mountains and on the plains, they also often began to settle in the suburbs.

Nutrition

In the summer, birds eat insects but may also eat a variety of invertebrates. At the time of berry ripening, most species of thrush prefer berries and fruit plants. For rural areas, these birds are a real disaster, as they can destroy a large crop. When birds unite in flocks they can destroy:

• strawberry fields;
• pear and apple trees;
• other berry crops.

Despite such problems with the harvest, thrushes still benefit by destroying many insect pests of agriculture.

Many have thrushes in their homes, but before you do this, you should know that the birds are very suspicious and shy. If you want to have this species in your house, then you need to create a spacious aviary for it. When it is not possible to make an aviary, you need to select a cage with minimum dimensions 70x30x40 cm. The aviary or cage should be equipped with hanging feeders, in this form the thrush prefers to eat food. The bird loves sunlight and water treatments. In the warm season, it is recommended to keep thrushes at home in a well-ventilated area in partial shade.

Thrushes are voracious, but they are easier to keep than other insectivorous birds. It takes a lot of food to feed them. In general, birds prefer soft food. In addition to many types of berries, thrushes willingly feed on slugs, earthworms, and bare caterpillars.

Thrushes - wintering or nomadic birds?

These birds are considered migratory, but their departure for wintering is extended in time. This phenomenon goes unnoticed. In spring they return in small flocks or alone. With the advent of September, thrushes begin to fly off to warmer climes. In fruitful years for berries, birds can fly away much later. A species such as fieldfare can remain for the winter if there are a lot of berries in the places of its settlement. Thrushes winter in Africa, in southern Asia and southern Europe. After wintering they return in April.

They can create nests even on the ground, they can settle on stumps and trees. Often settled in hollows, on heaps of brushwood and the roots of fallen trees. Birds always try to nest in places inaccessible to predators.

Thrushes can hatch chicks twice a year. The female incubates 3-7 eggs. Due to its color, the female is almost invisible in the nest. While the expectant mother is sitting on the clutch, the male can sometimes replace her, for a short time. Chicks appear after 2 weeks helpless, they really need parental care. Mother and father feed them berries and insects. Everyday food for the chicks will depend on how lucky the male is. It can be:

Thrush flights to warmer climes occur at night twice a year - in spring and autumn. If the house has a thrush in a cage, then the birds during this period of time behave very restlessly at night. They are constantly jumping from perch to perch and also jump to the floor. They create noise with their anxiety.

When birds are healthy and in a good mood, they are very active. Thrushes eat a lot, are mobile, bathe willingly and do not hoof. Their feathers are not ruffled, their beak and eyes are clean.

A genus of birds of the thrush family of the passerine order. 62 species. Body length 20-25 centimeters.

On the ground they move by jumping, while crouching. Thrushes are common in Europe, Asia and America; brought to New Zealand. For the winter, northern species of thrushes fly south, gathering in large flocks.

They nest alone or in small colonies in trees, bushes or on the ground; nests are massive, often with earth or clay in the walls. Over the summer, thrushes give 1-2 clutches, each with 3 to 7 eggs. They feed on insects, spiders, worms, mollusks, berries, and often feed on the ground.

This name combines a fairly large number of bird species from the thrush family. Over 60 species, distributed everywhere, most widely in Eurasia and America. There are 15 species of thrushes in Russia. They inhabit almost all continents and climatic zones of the Earth, with the exception of the subarctic ones. Representatives of this family can be found mainly in forests, flat or mountainous, only some species (for example, African thrush - in the savannah, brown - in the tundra) can live in open spaces.

Thrushes successfully master the suburbs, settling in parks, squares, salakhs. In the summer, birds feed mainly on insects and invertebrates, sometimes they hunt larger prey - small reptiles and amphibians. During the ripening season of berries and fruits, thrushes move on them, often posing a serious threat to the crop.

In central Russia, thrushes, united in fairly large flocks, can rob strawberry beds, cherry trees, sea buckthorn, and currants. They peck at apples, pears, plums, choosing the already "ripe", the sweetest places of fruit. But in the summer, destroying pests of forests, orchards and orchards, thrushes bring undoubted benefits.

Most of these birds are excellent singers. Thrushes nest in trees, although they spend a significant part of their lives looking for food in the forest floor. Thrushes not only fly well, but also run fast, or rather, jump on the ground. Nests in birds are cup-shaped, made of small branches, fastened with clay or mud with the help of sticky saliva of birds. In most species of thrush, only the female takes part in the construction of the nest, but both parents feed the chicks. Clutches usually contain 4 to 7 eggs.

Thrushes are distrustful and shy birds. They should be kept in large (70X30X40 cm) wooden cages with bamboo rods and deep (for easy cleaning) pallets. It is better to give food and water to thrushes in hanging feeders and bathing places. These birds need regular bathing and sunlight. From spring to late autumn, cages with thrushes are best kept on the balcony, but in hot weather, part of the cage should be shaded.

Thrushes are quite voracious, but they are easier to feed than small insectivorous birds. They willingly eat not only the usual food of thin-billed birds, but also berries of mountain ash, elderberry, derain, bird cherry, horticultural crops, apples, earthworms, slugs and naked caterpillars.

Give the thrushes a mixture for insectivorous birds. This mixture is made from grated carrots (medium grater for cheese) with the addition of breadcrumbs, cottage cheese, crushed sunflower seeds, hamarus, crushed hemp, chopped or grated hard-boiled chicken eggs, dry or better fresh ant pupae. The ratio of these components is determined by the species and individual characteristics of pets. Carrots should make up about half of the mixture by volume, then the dry ingredients, absorbing carrot juice, become more attractive to birds.

Mixtures are made of a loose consistency, crumbly so that it does not stick to hands and beaks. A substitute for carrots can be turnips or dandelion greens scrolled through a meat grinder. It is useful to add the latter to the mixture a little, and in winter replace it with a pinch of herbal flour.

The biggest problem with keeping thrushes in captivity is their large size. Because of it, they need more space and food than almost all other songbirds. These birds are more suitable for captive keeping. As a rule, thrushes are bred for their beautiful singing, so the most popular species are songbirds and blackbirds. Thrushes are migratory birds, but relatively painlessly withstand negative temperatures and do not need additional lighting in winter.

Not only in terms of their species diversity, but also in terms of numbers, thrushes occupy one of the first places. Every fifth bird you see in the forest is a representative of this family. Despite this, thrushes are much inferior in popularity to swallows and starlings. Most people do not even know what an adult bird looks like and how to feed a chick found on the street.

In this article, you will learn what a thrush chick looks like, how to feed it at home and prevent the development of various infectious diseases that reduce its immunity. With some effort, you will be able to grow a beautiful songbird out of it within a month.

Thrush chick fell out of the nest - what to do?

In the warm season, in the grass, you can often find small flying thrushes that sit on the ground, waiting for their parents to bring them the long-awaited food. Remember that by taking such a baby home, you take on a serious responsibility, which not everyone can shoulder, because parents will take much better care of the brood. However, if the life of the chick is in immediate danger, and you are determined to take care of it, then you need to know a few basic rules. Guided by them, you can grow a beautiful bird from a fledgling lump that will delight you with unique singing if you leave it in the house.

Chick development

The female thrush lays 3 to 6 eggs in one clutch. After hatching, the chicks develop very quickly and in a few weeks they make their first flight from the nest to the ground. As soon as the thrush chick, whose photo is located below, grows up and masters the ability to fly, its mobility increases several times.

It is noteworthy that the chicks tend to leave the nest as soon as possible in order not to become prey for cats, crows and other birds of prey. Hiding in the grass, they often sit still until the parents bring food. Adults know exactly where they are, so picking up a little thrush that has “fallen out” of the nest is worth it only if there is a real threat to its life.

After about a month, the thrush chick begins to make the first sounds, which will later develop into full-fledged singing.

Appearance

The appearance of small thrushes is quite characteristic - they look short-haired. This is directly related to the fact that their tail unit has not yet grown. The beak, saturated yellow, is surrounded by special rollers that visually enlarge the beak, indicating to parents where the brought food should be placed.

Since the feathers are not yet fully developed in some places, they do not cover the body, which is why the thrush chick has a rather unkempt appearance. Despite this, his eyes are already fully open, and he can fully move on his paws.

With a strong fright, the chicks allow themselves to be taken in hand, however, if at this time there are parents nearby, they will try, if possible, to protect the baby from encroachment.

The most common types

On the territory of the CIS, five types of thrushes can most often be found:

• Belobrovik.
• Fieldfare - his singing is a mixture of creaking and chirping.
• Deryaba is one of the largest thrushes. Prefers to sing away from human eyes.
• Blackbird - sings, located on top of trees.
• The song thrush is the most numerous and most vociferous species.

By knowing what a thrush chick looks like, you can determine what species it belongs to and, with the help of a veterinarian, determine the most appropriate diet for it.

Most often, the singing of thrushes can be heard at dawn, starting at 4 o'clock in the morning, and in the evening - in the evening before sunset. If you decide to catch a young individual yourself, keep in mind that in case of failure, you will have to wait at least a year, because these birds are very distrustful and remember well the places where they were in immediate danger.

Habitat

Thrushes are heat-loving migratory birds that prefer to winter in southern latitudes. They are found almost everywhere. The only exceptions are the polar regions and some remote islands due to the extremely difficult climatic conditions for life. At the same time, certain species settle only in a certain area. An example is the stone thrush, which lives only in Madagascar.

Feeding features

Complete feeding will not only improve health and appearance, but also prepare the bird for further reproduction. In the event that you plan to release the grown baby into the wild in the future, you should try not to take him in your arms, because, having got used to you, he will completely cease to be afraid of people, considering you to be his parent, and may simply not survive in unusual situations. him in the natural environment.

Thrush chick - how to care?

Keep in mind that the amount of food required by the bird should vary depending on its condition and season. So, for example, a newly picked thrush chick eats twice as much food as an already accustomed one.

In females, during the laying period, the appetite increases several times. At this time, they should be provided with a sufficient amount of animal feed required during the period of intense singing and increased sexual activity.

Complete Diet

If the thrush chick did not have time to acquire its own plumage, it should be heated, maintaining the temperature in the room from 26 to 28 degrees. For these purposes, a heating pad wrapped in a clean towel is ideal.

Feed of animal origin

Feeds of animal origin provide birds not only with animal proteins, but also with many minerals. To prepare a complete diet, a mixture of grated boiled eggs, cottage cheese, containing B vitamins, necessary for full development, is suitable.

From meat products, it is best to use offal. Minced meat or boiled fish is best suited. It is periodically added to the composition of the daily food that your thrush chick eats (a photo with an example of feeding is located below).

However, keep in mind that if you want to provide a chick with natural nutrition, it is best to feed it with ant pupae, which can be found by digging up almost any anthill, mealworms, wax moth caterpillars, bloodworms, and even small mice. When feeding, it should be borne in mind that adult thrushes can easily cope even with vole mice.

Mineral feed

In nature, all the necessary vitamin and mineral components of the bird are obtained as a result of the use of various additives. Thus, thrushes need river sand, due to which roughage, consisting of various grains, greens and branches, is crushed in their body.

Providing birds with such top dressing allows you not to disturb the correct metabolism, even when kept at home. So, for example, carrots, which contain a large amount of carotene in their composition, must be present in the daily diet of the chick, making up about 30% in the feed you have prepared.

vitamins

In addition, one should constantly add crushed eggshells to their daily diet, after boiling it, crushed chalk, shell rock and charcoal, which provide additional strength to the bones. Special attention should be paid to a variety of berries that should be harvested for poultry for the winter, drying them in bright, well-ventilated areas.

As a stable source of trace elements several times a week, you can add multivitamin tablets or honey to the water that the chick drinks, which indirectly helps to strengthen immunity. However, keep in mind that if you purchase ready-made vitamin preparations at a veterinary pharmacy, you should strictly follow the instructions, because an excess of vitamins can cause the same harm to a thrush as their lack.

Thrush nests in the forest catch the eye, perhaps more often than the nests of other birds. Twisted from dry straw and rather large, they are clearly visible in the forks of trunks or on tree branches. Moreover, the thrushes themselves raise an alarming cry when a person appears in the forest and, flying from branch to branch near the nest, give out his whereabouts.

At first glance, the nests of various thrushes are similar to each other, but upon closer examination, you can notice the difference, and in most cases, determine which species of thrush the found nest belongs to, even if the birds themselves are not nearby or even when the chicks have long left their home and the nest is empty.

Nesting of the field thrush

Thrush fieldfare often settles even in city parks. But more often it occupies the marginal areas of forests and groves, where it sometimes forms nesting colonies. And although sometimes you can see the nests of these birds very low above the ground, for the most part they place them quite high, especially if they settled in a crowded place. Then the nest can be seen at an inaccessible height, almost 25 m from the ground.

Fieldfare nests on a variety of trees, but prefers to do so on birches, oaks or pines. Moreover, on birches, nests are usually located in a fork in the trunk or between the trunk and a bough extending from it, on large oaks - usually on thick horizontal branches, often quite far from the trunk, on pines - almost at the ends of dense low branches, 3-5 m from the earth. However, in different places, depending on the nature of the forest, birds can also settle on other trees. In the Kostroma region in the river valley Unzha, fieldfare build nests on alder, goat willow and elm. In abandoned villages, they nest on the ruins of huts or in dense elderberry bushes growing near houses.

A large and dense nest is made of dry stems and leaves of grasses and sedges held together by sticky earth. The tray is lined with thinner blades of grass and plant fibers. The nest is 12 to 20 in diameter and 8 to 15 cm in height, the size of the tray is (7-13) x 6.5 cm. Both birds manage to build such a structure in five days, after which it dries for two days. In a dry nest, the female lays 4-7 eggs of a greenish color, with thick brown spots, curls and specks. The size of the eggs is about 28.7 × 21.2 mm. Full clutches can be found from late April to mid-May. And since the egg laying period is very extended, and when the clutch is lost, the thrushes begin to lay again, in different nests you can simultaneously see incomplete clutches, heavily incubated eggs, and chicks of various ages.

The clutch is incubated mainly by the female. The male does not feed her, so she has to leave the nest for a while to feed. The male, on the other hand, guards the nest, being nearby, and usually raises the alarm when a predator or a person appears. 2 weeks after the start of incubation, chicks appear. The thrushes carry the eggshells and leave them away from the nest. The female at first stays in the nest for a long time - she warms the little chicks, but then both birds begin to forage and bring food, and on the way back, for food, grab white dropping capsules and throw them 20-30 m from the nest. Over time, a large number of heaps of drying litter accumulate in a small area. Chick litter is different from the litter of adult birds. It is thick, like sour cream, white drop with darker zones. It is, as it were, enclosed in a thin shell and does not blur in the beak of the bird that bears it.

The chicks stay in the nest for about 13 days. But, disturbed, they can prematurely jump out of it and hide in the grass. Often these chicks die from hypothermia. Fledglings, who left the nest in time, sit down in the bushes. Sometimes, when approaching them, a person hides, taking a motionless pose, and can let him very close to him. Adults feed the fledglings for about a week, and already at the very end of May or in the first days of June they begin to build a new nest.

Blackbird nesting

Blackbird on a nest located in a fork in a linden trunk

The blackbird, unlike fieldfare, likes to settle in deaf forest ravines or in swampy old alder groves intertwined with hops and overgrown with nettles and currants. Often he places his nest at the very butt of a tree, among plant rags and stems of climbing plants, sometimes in a fork of the trunk, but not high above the ground, or in a large wide hollow, a rotten old tree. The nest is usually 14-18 cm across and 6-9 cm high. It is made of thin twigs, nettle stalks, patches of moss, fastened with damp earth and clay. The tray is lined with thin dry blades of grass, its size is (4.5-6.5) x (6.5-12) cm.

The eggs of the blackbird, and there are 5-7 of them in the nest, are on average somewhat larger than those of the fieldfare, and are paler in color - greenish-blue, with more rare blurry spots. With a certain skill, they can be distinguished from fieldfare eggs and other thrushes. Of all our thrushes, the blackbird sits especially tightly on the nest. I was able to sketch the nests of these thrushes from a very close distance, and the female continued to incubate the clutch.

Song Thrush nesting

Song Thrush fledgling lurking on a branch

The song thrush obviously prefers spruce forests, and most often it is possible to see its nests there. If the spruce is large, then the nest is located at the very trunk, on top of a branch extending from it, and if it is young and dense - in the middle of the crown. I had to find nests of song thrushes and on the trunks of trees cut down or felled by the wind, the needles of which had already turned brown. They can build nests in completely different places, and on other trees, for example, in hollows of old trees, on thin trunks of bird cherry trees inclined over a ravine, on trunks of fallen trees, often on wooden buildings located in the forest, and sometimes right on the ground.

The nest of the song thrush is very easy to distinguish from the nests of other thrushes living in the middle lane. Made on the outside of thin dry spruce twigs, dry grass stalks and green moss, inside it is always smeared with damp rot or clay. And when, after 2-3 days, the layer of rotten things lining the bottom dries out, the nest from the inside becomes like a large deep cup. Directly on this lining, without any additional bedding, the female lays bright blue eggs with rare black dots. Already in coloring they cannot be confused with any others. The average size of the eggs is 27×20.2 mm. In the first clutch you can find 4-7, in the second 3-5 eggs.

Sometimes the whole nest is built from dry stalks of nettle or marsh horsetail, and then it seems especially large and light, but inside it is still plastered with wet rotten things. Nest dimensions are approximately the same as those of other thrushes: 10-19 cm across and 8-14 cm high; tray (8-11) x (5.5-8) cm.

Redwing Thrush nesting

Redwing Thrush nest on deadwood pile

Redwing more often than other thrushes makes nests right on the ground, sometimes under the cover of a fallen trunk or branch, and sometimes just at the foot of a tree or on the slope of a forest ravine. But still, he often places them at a certain height, although not high from the ground - on a pile of deadwood or on a stump, often on the end of a rotten alder trunk broken at a height of 2-4 m, in a fork in a gnarled forest willow trunk, between the roots uprooted by a storm tree.

Redwing nests are usually somewhat smaller than those of other thrushes, although they can be just as large. Some of them are cemented from the inside, like the nests of a song thrush. In such cases, one should be especially careful not to make a mistake in determining to whom the nest belongs. Many nests are covered on the inside with dry grass over clay. Redwing nest is 11-20 cm in diameter and 9-18 cm in height; tray size (8.5-12)x(5-7) cm.

Redwing eggs are smaller than those of other thrushes - about 25.8 * 18.7 mm. They are darker green in color with a reticulated pattern of brown streaks and whorls.

Mistle Thrush nesting

Mistle Thrush nests are much rarer than nests of any of the above mentioned thrushes. Despite the fact that the singing of these birds is easiest to hear in a pine forest, and the birds themselves are most often found in pine forests, I have never found their nests in pine trees. I came across them only on deciduous trees - in the forks of trunks of large willows on the banks of a forest river and on a sprawling birch, near a small forest clearing. These thrushes are also known to build their nests inside old nests of crows and birds of prey.

The nest, found by me on May 31, was placed in a fork in the trunk of a thick birch, 7 m from the ground. Outside, it was twisted from spruce twigs and dry herbs. All this was sealed with clay. The diameter of the nest was 16.5 cm, and the size of the tray was 10.5 × 7 cm. The nest contained 4 heavily incubated eggs of a bluish-green color, with purple-gray and brown spots. The size of the eggs is about 31.2-22.3 mm. The mistletoe has 2 broods per year.