Bird Biographies

by Alice Eliza Ball

THE OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH

The Olive-backed Thrush is about an inch smaller than the wood thrush (7 inches), and is uniformly olive-brown above. Its breast, throat, cheeks, and eye-ring are buff; its sides gray. The breast, sides of the throat, and cheeks are spotted with black.

Note: Its call-note is puck;

Song: its song pleasing, with a phrasing that reminds one of the hermit thrush, but it is louder and less deliberate, and lacks, also, the hermit’s liquid sweetness. The olive-back has a habit of singing from the pointed top of a tall spruce; near by, on a neighboring treetop, an olive-sided flycatcher may utter its Peep here, or a hermit may sing in the grove below.

Habitat: The olive-back lives in woods, rather than close to the haunts of man; it prefers to be near streams and swampy places, as does the western RUSSET-BACK THRUSH, a bird very similar in appearance and habits.

Range: The olive-back breeds in Canada and northern United States, and winters from Mexico to South America.