Thrushes Wintering in Lancaster County

     Three kinds of birds in the thrush family regularly winter in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, including American robins, eastern bluebirds and hermit thrushes.  Many individuals of each species migrate farther south for the winter, but some stay north.  The robins in winter frequent older suburban areas and woodland edges, the bluebirds are mostly in overgrown fields and meadows, and woodland edges, and the hermits winter in woods and their borders with open areas.
These wintering thrushes feed on berries, and invertebrates when those little critters are available during warmer periods of winter.  And all these species are handsome, each in its own way.
       American robins are the best known of these thrushes because they nest and winter on our lawns.  They are gray-brown on top and rufous below and in summer they run and stop, run and stop on lawns in their search for earthworms and other types of invertebrates. 
     Male robins sing lusty songs, particularly at dawn and in the evening in spring and summer, from tree tops while females build nurseries of mud and fine grass in young trees and bushes.  Each female robin lays four deep-blue eggs in a clutch early in April and that first brood fledges about the middle of May.  Young robins have short tails and spotted breasts when they leave their cradles, showing their relatedness to thrushes. Some eggs and young, however, are preyed on by crows and blue jays.  Each pair of robins attempts to produce two broods of young per summer, which makes up for losses.
      Late in summer, robins form groups in suburbs and hedgerows before either going south for the winter or finding berries locally to eat through the winter.  During winter days they eat berries, but spend winter nights tucked away in the sheltering embraces of needled coniferous boughs.
     Male bluebirds are very attractive, being sky-blue on top and having rufous chests and white bellies.  Females are gray on top, with blue in their wings and tails, and rufous and white underneath.  Males sing gentle warbles that touch the souls of many people.  Each pair of bluebirds hatches about four young in a tree cavity in an overgrown meadow or hedgerow, or a bird box erected just for them.  Each pair tries to rear two or three broods per summer.  But bluebirds have much competition for those nesting hollows, including tree swallows, house sparrows, house wrens, and black rat snakes that will also eat the eggs or young.  Young bluebirds also have spotted chests, which shows their being a member of the thrush family. 
     Late in summer, bluebirds gather into little groups to either drift south in October or stay north and feed on berries in hedgerows.  Each winter night, several bluebirds pack into a tree hollow or bird house to share body heat.
     Hermit thrushes winter only as individuals, never in groups.  And being secretive forest birds, they are the least noticed of wintering thrushes in this area.  But they are attractive in their camouflaged way.  They are warm-brown on top to blend into the color of the leaf cover on forest floors.  And these petite thrushes have spotted chests, long legs for a thrush, and a bit of brownish-orange on their tails that they regularly pump up and down, perhaps as a communication to other hermits. 
     Male hermits sing lovely, ethereal songs in deep forests on mountain slopes, such as in the Pocono and Catskill Mountains, as elsewhere.  When I hear a hermit sing in a quiet forest, I think that woodland's existence has been justified just because of that one bird.
     American robins, eastern bluebirds and hermit thrushes are a part of Lancaster County in winter.  But one often must go out to look for them to appreciate their existence in this county in winter.