Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus

The mistle thrush can be confused with the common song thrush, but is in fact slightly larger. It has a slightly greyer plumage and pale spots on its belly – as opposed to the characteristic streaks of the song thrush.

Conservation status in Norfolk

The mistle thrush is on the 'amber list' of British birds, due to an overall population decline of more than a quarter in recent years, although in the 19th century this species spread dramatically northwards (reflected in a continuing increase in Scotland). Mistle thrushes are scarce in Broadland and the fens, and in mid-Norfolk. Winter survival seems to be a problem, soil invertebrates are very important to all the ground-feeding thrushes in winter and 'improved' grassland and intensive arable fields support very few, the birds have to rely on fruit which is less nutritious and vulnerable to insensitive hedgerow management.

Click to see the Biodiversity Action Plan Species for this species

How to help

Urban mistle thrushes frequent larger gardens and readily take fruit, scraps and softer dry foods from the ground; they are too large and wary to use most bird tables. Dried fruit is a favourite of all thrushes; soak it first if it's very old and hard.
Plant berry-bearing shrubs or small trees and save windfall apples, putting them out in hard weather.

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Mike Dawson

Information on the Mistle Thrush

How to recognise

A large, brown thrush which looks at first sight rather like the more common song thrush. However, it is slightly larger and with experience can quickly be identified by its different behaviour, call and song. The plumage is somewhat greyer and the dark markings on the pale belly are distinct, round spots, whereas those on a song thrush merge into streaks. In flight, the underwings are white whereas those of a song thrush are a warm brown, and when the bird takes off you should see white edges to the tail, which a song thrush does not have. In behaviour, the mistle thrush is much bolder, bounding about in the middle of a meadow and singing loudly from the very top of a tall tree. It's flight is high and undulating like a woodpecker's; song thrushes fly low, fast and direct and rarely stray far from cover, preferring to sing from within it. Mistle thrushes have a unique 'rattle' alarm call and their song is loud and distinctive, a quite long, warbling phrase is repeated with only slight variation.

Where to see

Traditionally a bird of open country, the mistle thrush needs tall, mature trees for singing and nesting, and open meadows for feeding. More recently, it has done well in cities that have big trees and parks or large gardens. Mistle thrushes were found in 65% of the surveyed area in the 1986 Norfolk Bird Atlas, they dislike wetlands, mature, closed conifer plantations and the most intensive arable farmland. Most adults are resident but young birds are quite mobile and may travel several hundred kilometres or even overseas to find their own territory.

When to see

Throughout the year. Mistle thrushes breed early, males start their loud and insistent song around Christmas. In winter they may feed on meadows in small flocks of up to a dozen, but their best-known behaviour is to adopt and 'guard' a berry-bearing tree.

Did you know?

A bird singing loudly from the very top of a tall tree is likely to be a mistle thrush, especially in bad weather - an old name for this bird is Stormcock.

Finding out more

British Trust for Ornithology Population Status
Royal Society for the protection of Birds

Related questions

What is the difference between a song thrush and a mistle thrush ?

The mistle thrush is the largest UK resident thrush. It is pale brown in general colour with grey edges to the wing feathers and some whiter feathering around the face which give it an overall pale appearance. The breast is boldly spotted and it has a relatively long tail. On the ground the bird adopts a very upright posture. The flight is very strongly undulated and the under wing and outer tail feathers are white. The Mistle thrush has a very pleasant song which is not dissimilar to that of a blackbird, although less fluting. The alarm note is a loud, harsh rattling call.

The song thrush is a smaller, neater bird. The adult is olive or sandy-brown above and the neatly spotted pale underside is tinged yellowish-buff around the breast. The song thrush has a more horizontal posture on the ground and in flight it shows a buff coloured underwing and short uniformly coloured tail. The song thrush has a very loud song usually delivered from the topmost branch of a tree. It comprises numerous repeated phrases and can be heard from February onwards and throughout the spring.

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