Olive-backed Thrush
The Olive-back’s song is a little like the Wood Thrush’s, but is longer, and it usually ascends the scale, in this respect differing from the Veery’s. Its buffy eye-ring is usually a dependable field-mark. The alarm-note may be written pert, pronounced in front of the teeth.
HERMIT THRUSH
Hylocichla guttata faxoni Bangs and Penard
Description.—Underparts olive-brown, with a somewhat noticeable buffy eye-ring, and a noticeably red-brown tail, which is the most dependable field-mark; throat and breast washed with buffy, the breast marked with rows of short, blackish, rounded streaks; belly white; sides grayish brown. Length: A little over 7 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A common migrant, appearing early in spring often during March, and remaining late in fall, often until November or even Christmas; it is casual in winter. As a nesting bird it is rather rare, occurring in the northern counties and at high altitudes.
Nest.—Usually on the ground, of leaves, rootlets, grasses, and moss, lined with finer materials. Eggs: 3 or 4, greenish blue.
The Hermit Thrush’s red-brown tail is usually a good field-mark because it shows plainly, even as the bird flies away. It should not be confused with the Fox Sparrow, however, which has a brown back and bright red-brown tail, and which, curiously enough, occurs as an early spring, or late fall migrant, at about the same time as the Hermit Thrush.
The song of the Hermit Thrush is thought by some to be the highest point attained in American bird-music. It may be described as an elaborated and refined Wood Thrush song, given in deliberate, easy manner, often in the evening, and sometimes virtually at nightfall.
ROBIN
Turdus migratorius migratorius Linnaeus
Description.—Adult male: Head blackish; partial white eye-ring; rest of upperparts gray, darker on wings and tail; outer tail-feathers narrowly tipped with white; throat white, streaked with black; breast and sides brownish red, sometimes somewhat barred with whitish; belly and undertail-coverts white, the latter sometimes marked with grayish. Eyes dark brown. Female: Duller. Young: The breasts are spotted with black. Length: 10 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—Abundant migrant and summer resident, appearing early in spring, sometimes in February or March, and lingering often until November; casual in winter, when it is likely to be seen in flocks.
Nest.—A firm, neatly cupped structure of grasses, weed stalks, string, and so forth, with an inner lining of mud, placed in trees, on window-sills, under porches, and sometimes on the ground. Eggs: 3 or 4, pale blue.
Robin