Bicknell's Thrush

About the Bicknell's Thrush

Bicknell's thrush (Catharus bicknelli) is a medium-sized thrush, at 17.5 cm (6.9 in) and 28 g (0.99 oz). One of North America's rarest and most localized songbirds, it breeds on coniferous mountain tops and disturbed habitats of northeastern North America. While very similar in appearance and vocalization to the gray-cheeked thrush (Catharus minimus), the two species differ slightly in their morphology and vocalizations, although they have with completely different breeding ranges. It was named after Eugene Bicknell, an American amateur ornithologist, who made the first scientific discovery of the species on Slide Mountain in the Catskills in the late 19th century. John Burroughs, in his essay, "The Heart of the Southern Catskills" (1886), writes effusively about the voice of Bicknell's thrush heard near the summit on his climbs of Slide Mountain, and how on his stays on Slide saw them nowhere else but "about the summit", and saw no other thrush but Bicknell's.

Bicknell's thrush is just slightly smaller than the other northern migratory Catharus thrushes, with an average length of approximately 17 cm (6.7 in) and a weight ranging generally from 26 to 30g. Both sexes... Wikipedia →