[All pictures of garden wildlife on this page are thumbnails. Click on any thumbnail for a large format to be displayed.]

Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos)

Clickhere for the bird's sound.

The Song Thrush has very striking markings on the chest.

Not only is this bird an excellent singer, it's also a very useful bird to have in your garden, especially during damp and moist summers. It eats snails and specializes in the ones with a 'house'. It picks up the snail and beats the shell on a stone until it breaks. The Song Thrush is almost everywhere, but never in such numbers as the Blackbird is. The Blackbird, being just a bit larger, will not always tolerate Song Thrushes in it's territory.

The Song Thrush is very welcome in one's garden, for it eats snails.

The chicks of the Song Thrush are not the most beautiful of birds. They resemble the chicks of many other thrushes: speckled chest and all. While the speckles on the chest of Song Thrushes remain, those on the Robins and on the Blackbirds chest disappear.

On the left a very young and on the right a slightly older Song Thrush chicken.

This bird belongs to the family of Thrushes (Turdinae). It is frequently in our garden, lately with the tendency to become common and can be seen in Holland all year round. The bird is 9" and weighs 70 grams. It lives in woodlands, parks and gardens mostly. It eats snails, worms, insects and berries. The sexes do not differ from one another. The nest is build in trees from April till July and in it three to six eggs are deposited. It takes the eggs 12 days to hatch. The chickens remain inside the nest for some 14 days.