Hermit Thrush

Catharus guttatus · Thrushes

Hermit Thrush with a berry

Prospect Park, 15 November 2025

A Hermit Thrush with a single orange berry gripped at the bill tip in Prospect Park in November, a second thrush blurred behind it. It is a thrush of the northern conifer forests that winters further north than any of its relatives, and a few stay in the city's parks on fruit rather than continuing south.

Fruit becomes the dominant part of a Hermit Thrush's diet once insects get scarce, which is exactly the trade this bird is making by staying this far north. It is the only spotted thrush that regularly winters in the United States.

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.