Hermit Thrush
Catharus guttatus
Hermit Thrush · Central Park · 26 October 2025
A Hermit Thrush in Central Park in late October, on its way from the northern conifer forests to a winter in the southern states, or possibly staying; it is the only spotted thrush that regularly winters in the United States, and a few stay in the city's parks.
Warm brown above with a rufous tail that contrasts against the duller back. The tail-pumping habit, slowly raised and lowered while perched, is one of the more reliable ways to pick it out from several very similar spotted thrushes. The song, heard on the breeding grounds rather than here, is generally reckoned the finest of any North American bird - a flute phrase repeated at different pitches, and the state bird of Vermont on the strength of it.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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