Menu
Hit enter to search or ESC to close
Collections Menu
  • Collections Home
  • Visit Us
  • What’s On
  • Museums
  • Collections
  • Learning & Engagement
  • Resources & Research
  • Search the Collections
  • Join & Support
  • Contact
  • ETON COLLEGE
  • PARENT PORTAL
  • EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
  • THE TONY LITTLE CENTRE (CIRL)
  • ETONX
  • COLLEGE COLLECTIONS
  • OEA ONLINE
  • FACILITIES FOR HIRE
What’s On
  • Exhibitions
  • Museum and Gallery Openings
  • Events
  • Heritage Tours
  • Online Exhibitions
  • Past Exhibitions
Back
Museums
  • Museum of Antiquities
  • Museum of Eton Life
  • Natural History Museum
Back
Collections
  • Archives
  • College Library
  • Fine and Decorative Art
  • Collections Care
Back
Learning & Engagement
  • Digital Learning Resources
  • Schools
  • Families
  • Colleges and Universities
  • Adult Groups
Back
Resources & Research
  • Search the Collections
  • Blog
  • Online Resources
  • Image Service
  • Loans
  • Research Facilities
Back
Join & Support
  • Friends of the Collections
  • Donate
Back
Contact
  • Contact Details
Back

Home Resources & Research Blog

On the Spot – some thoughts about Thrushes

27 Nov 2018

Natural History Museum

On the Spot – some thoughts about Thrushes

Home News & Diary School Blog

On the Spot – some thoughts about Thrushes

Natural History Museum

Song Thrush
Mistle Thrush

Photos courtesy of Gordon Langsbury (deceased) of Bucks Bird Club.

Throughout the hot weather that we enjoyed this summer, I was ever conscious of how difficult it was for the birds in Eton to keep hydrated and maintain the quality of their diets.  Two ever-presents for me were both from the thrush family.  We tend to think of all thrushes as having plump breasts with spotted feathers, but in fact thrush species come in many different colours and not all are spotty, by any means.  For example, Blackbirds are included in the thrush family, and so were European Robins until very recently.

In my riverside garden, the Song Thrushes love to catch invertebrates and especially snails.  These, along with the blueberries and blackberries they steal from my bushes, must provide much-needed moisture to their diet.  At least they keep the slug and snail population down and help protect my soft leaved border plants!  In the Eton Natural History Museum, there’s a great display showing that some snails are far easier to catch than others.  It turns out that the colour and stripiness of snail shells have a huge camouflaging effect on which ones can be seen and caught by thrushes. They break open snails by smashing the shells against a convenient stone, called an ‘anvil’.  This habit allows us to know which snail shell patterns they find easier to catch merely by counting the broken shell fragments next to an anvil.  As their name suggests, Song Thrushes are renowned for their singing, especially their habit of repeating a variety of phrases.  They are also widespread.  Settlers Down Under transported the Song Thrush to New Zealand in 1862: they have now become one of the commonest garden birds on both the North and South Islands.

On South Meadow and the nearby Recreation Ground, there have been a handful of Mistle Thrushes around all summer, searching for small invertebrates.  Worms retreated so far underground in the dry weather that the thrushes have been restricted to gathering insects.  Mistle Thrushes are considerably greyer than the Song Thrush and notably larger.  Their outer tail feathers, which are white, are very distinctive in flight.  In the winter when resources are scarce Mistle Thrushes are renowned for guarding fruitful bushes from all-comers.  Their name is said to come from their love of mistletoe!

George Fussey FRSB, FLS

Curator

Back to all blogs
Previous

Remembering the First World War: the Libro d’oro

09 Nov 2018

Next

A Selection of Snowy Scenes

11 Dec 2018

Contact Us

Collections Administrator
Eton College Collections
Eton College
Windsor
SL4 6DB

01753 370 590

[email protected]

Quick Links

  • Online Resources
  • Search the Collections
  • Archives
  • College Library
  • Fine and Decorative Art
  • Museum of Antiquities
  • Museum of Eton Life
  • Natural History Museum
  • Collections Care
  • Contact Details
Registered Charity Number 1139086
© Eton College 2025

Web design by TWK