eS 
Fig. 10.—Male varied thrush photographed near Rockford, Hlinois 
in January, 1970 by Jack Armstrong. This is a valuable photographic rec- 
ord of a species rare in Illinois. ‘The bird is actually about the size of the 
robin. 
VARIED THRUSH 
WINTER RECORDS 
eae | Seer sare a 
@ 1950 — SOLD AMES) rere | WINNEB AL 3 aan 
“wing ee Pd 
A 1900- 1949 common | ge ae 
ee ail — DE KALB = at ° 
e'°. 
fa ae ye Ie ak aire iE 
a 
wes wale > mare | | IROQUOIS 
ee | Fe TAZEWELL 1 eS Vv | 
ae | 'ULTON | Me LEAN hee! alae oe 
By iF — 
— MASON Tt ae 
YLER 
ecan | CE MID CHAMPAIG! 
| 
MENARD 
cass 
F 
ic ae ese 
att eres SANGAMON eee nares ' 
ae at co COLES | | 
GREENE | 
aff MMACOUBIN MONTGOMERY 
CLARK 
PUMBERLAND 
EFFINGHAM 
€ | JASPER 
|cnawrond 
CLINTGN 
WASHINGTON 
ait 
pace: 
RAWDOLPH 
JACKSON 
|yexumson| SALINE (GALLATIN 
UNION. ~JJOHNSON|P O PE nano 
Scale 
to__O 10 20 30 _ 40 SOMiles 
SM, 
O74 Ne 
pons” 
Fig. 11.—Winter records for the varied thrush in Illinois. 
14 
WOOD THRUSH (Hylocichla mustelina) 
(Fig. 12 and 13) 
Spring Migration 
The available evidence, notably fall kills at tele 
towers, indicates that wood thrushes are night migi 
but we have never heard a recognizable wood thrus 
among the many Catharus calls we detect every mig} 
season in Illinois. : | 
March records for this species (George 1968) mi 
accidental even in southern Illinois, and should be care 
ly documented with full details. We are skeptical eve) 
early April records (Ford 1956, and Sparks 1905), espec 
ly in northern and central Illinois. In most years they 
wood thrushes reach southern Illinois about April 15 
tral Illinois about April 22, and northern Illinois i} 
April 29. Within a week the species becomes commo) 
peak numbers may be seen in all parts of the state 
May 6-20 (Fig. 14). 
We saw the largest numbers in the south and fewe 
the north, and our counts in southern and central 
were consistently higher on the western side of the 
than on the eastern side (Fig. 14). 
There are no published band recoveries of Tilinoi: 
thrushes for any season. 
} 
| 
| 
Distribution 
The general distribution of the wood thrush is $ 
Fig. 13. The breeding distribution in Illinois is ver 
known, especially in any quantitative detail (Fig. 15 
Nesting Habitats and Populations 
this problem is much more critical now. Cahn 
(1929) mentioned that wood thrushes breed in 
swamps. 
The species also nests in upland forest, and eve 
dential habitat and shrub areas (Table 3). Riis 
Gault (1933), and Musselman (1921a) reported g¢ 
ing populations in northern and western cities, but 
recently we found measurable urban populations 
the south (Graber & Graber 1963). = 
Wood thrush territories in central Illinois fore 
sured by Twomey (1945), Fawver (1947a), ane 
(1953) varied from about 2 to 7 acres. The most 
data are those of Calef who found extremes of 1. 
acres, with an average of about 3 acres. q 
There are nest site data on only 29 nests. | 
most favored were elms (31 percent of nests) and 
(17 percent). Although heights of nests ranged from 
feet, most of the nests (71 percent) were 5-10 feet high 
