~South Llano River State Park, Junction, TX, November, 2017

I believe this is the first photo of a Hermit Thrush I have taken. Generally, I don’t get an opportunity to observe one. This one was hanging around one of the bird blinds at South Llano River State Park when we were there over Thanksgiving, and I am thankful I got its photograph.

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A few facts about the Hermit Thrush – taken from WhatBird.Com….

Hermit Thrush: Small thrush, with olive-brown to red- or gray-brown upperparts, black-spotted white underparts and rufous tail. Distinct white eye-ring. Pink legs, feet. Swift direct flight, may hover briefly over prey. Considered to have one of the most beautiful songs of all North American birds. The state bird of Vermont.

• In the Appalachian Mountains the Hermit Thrush is displaced at lower elevations by the Veery and at higher elevations by Swainson’s Thrush.
• East of the Rocky Mountains it usually nests on the ground. In the West, it is more likely to nest in trees.
• Walt Whitman construes this bird as a symbol of the American voice, poetic and otherwise, in his elegy for Abraham Lincoln, ‘When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’.
• A group of thrushes are collectively known as a “hermitage” and a “mutation” of thrushes.

Hermit Thrush: Breeds from central Alaska east to Newfoundland and south to southern California, northern New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Virginia. Spends winters from Washington and southern New England southward. Preferred habitats include coniferous and mixed forests; deciduous woodlands and thickets are favored during migration and winter.

~Happy Birding~