Trivia question for Sep-17-2011

Carter is up for todays trivia and he found these birds interesting.  These guys perch on tree tops to deliver its beautiful, varied song which can be heard from dawn to dusk, especially in spring and summer.

These birds breed in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East; it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia. Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices.  These birds are omnivorous, eating a wide range of invertebrates, especially earthworms and snails, as well as soft fruit and berries. Like its relative, the Blackbird, these birds find animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.

So here are Carter’s questions:  Tell us what this bird is and tell us what they eat when food is scarce?  Also, although these birds are plentiful in their natural range, they do have one other bird species which preys upon the young of our featured bird.  Tell us what type of bird does this?

Good luck 😉

Answer:

Well we had several guesses and one person (Jean Netherton) actually was very close to getting the trivia correctly. The bird we featured is the Song Thrush which is similar to the Wood Thrush Jean had suggested but ours is found in Europe and the Middle East.  The Song Thrush is a thrush that breeds across much of Eurasia. It is also known in English dialects as throstle or mavis. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognized subspecies. Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.

When food is scarce, these guys will eat snails. Snails are especially important when drought or hard weather makes it difficult to find other food. The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an “anvil” on which to smash the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption. Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails. The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae.

The Song Thrush has an extensive range, estimated at 3.8 million square miles, and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone. Despite this, its numbers have declined over the past 20-years; many people blame this on an increase in the numbers of magpies, which preys upon the young of other birds. Here is more on these sweet sounding birds: Song Thrush

Thanks for playing along 😉