Veery

Overview

Veery: Medium-sized thrush with rust-brown upperparts, indistinct pale gray eye-ring, white underparts, and faint rust-brown spots on the breast. Dark race has gray-brown upperparts and breast spots. The male sings a lovely, ethereal downward-slurring song at sunset. Shy and retiring.

Range and Habitat

Veery: Breeds from southern British Columbia east to Newfoundland and south to Arizona, South Dakota, Minnesota, New Jersey, and in mountains to Georgia. Spends winters in tropics. Inhabits moist deciduous woodlands; prefers willow thickets along streams in the west.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Veery is the least spotted of all the American spotted thrushes and one of the easiest to identify. It is occasionally called Willow Thrush or Wilson's Thrush.
A study of migration using radio telemetry showed that they can fly up to 160 miles in one night, and can fly at altitudes above 1.2 miles.
Long thought to winter across the northern third of South America, a recent study indicated that, in fact, the wintering grounds of the Veery are restricted to central and southern Brazil.
A group of thrushes are collectively known as a "hermitage" and a "mutation" of thrushes.

The Veery has a large range, estimated globally at 3,700,000 square kilometers. Native to the Americas and nearby island nations, this bird prefers temperate, subtropical, or tropical forest ecosystems as well as dry savannas. The global population of this bird is estimated at 14,000,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Veery is Least Concern.