FLUTES IN THE WOODS

      Five species of spot-breasted thrushes in North America, wood thrushes, veeries, hermit thrushes, gray-cheeked thrushes and Swainson's thrushes, are related to American robins and sing the most lovely, melancholy of songs.  And they have other features in common, demonstrating their descending from a common ancestor.  

     All species of spot-breasted thrushes are about the same size, have brown feathering on top that camouflages them on dead-leaf-covered, woodland floors where they raise young and gather invertebrates to eat and feed to their babies in their leafy cradles.  

     The underparts of these thrushes are white with rows of dark dots that are similar among the five species.  They all rear offspring in North American forests, but winter in Central and South America.  And in May and June, males of these kinds of birds utter wonderful, ethereal concerts that touch the human soul with their pure beauty.  Their lovely songs are flute-like, almost other-worldly, that seem to gently float up and dissipate into thin air.  And those thrush concerts are most inspiring in the gathering, evening dusk when the musicians are not seen, but enjoyably heard.

     But those songs are not for our enjoyment.  They are meant to establish nesting territories, attract mates and repel other males.  Each pair of thrushes of all species attempts to raise three or four babies per brood, and they only have one brood per year.  

     All these types of thrushes prefer dead-leaf, fern and sapling, woodland understories where they merge with the concealing shadows of those habitats.  But each species has its own niche in North American woods.  Wood thrushes, for example, nest in deciduous woods in the eastern United States.  This species is more adaptable than its close relatives.  Many birds of this kind run over some suburban lawns studded with many big trees to search for invertebrates as robins do.  

     Male wood thrushes' lovely, clear, flute-like songs sound like "a-o-leeeee" or "e-o-laaaaa".  Females make mud and leaf nurseries in forks of shrubs or small trees in which to rear offspring.  

     Male veeries' repeated, breezy phrases, "veer, veer veer, veer" wheel downward.  Veeries nest near clear, running brooks and streams in bottomland woods across lower Canada and the northeastern United States.  Each female hatches youngsters in a dead-leaf cradle on a woodland floor. 

     Male hermit thrushes repeatedly emit three or four heavenly, clear phrases at different pitches in mixed coniferous and deciduous woods in New England, Canada and Alaska.  Their notes that touch human souls seem too good to be in this world.  Those notes fill the woods with inexpressible beauty. Female hermits place their dead-leaf cradles on the ground or in low bushes.

     Male gray-cheeked thrushes utter songs like a veery's downward whistling, but the last note of each thin phrase suddenly rises.  Females of this species build nurseries on the leaf-covered ground or in low bushes in stunted, mixed woods across upper Canada and Alaska.    

     Swainson's thrushes raise young in coniferous woods with dense understories across Canada and Alaska.  Males sing reedy, upward-spiraling melodies, with each note sliding up and vanishing into thin air.  Females of this type of thrush make nurseries in coniferous trees.

     Spot-breasted thrushes are attractive in a camouflaged way.  They live in a variety of woods and sing beautiful, unique songs that attract the genders together for raising offspring and help us to identify each kind.  But their lovely, heavenly songs are their greatest beauties.  Those delightful melodies are absolutely ethereal and surreal, and seem to touch our very souls.