WOOD THRUSH Hylocichla mustelina (Gmelin, 1789)

Accepted: 18 (95%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 1	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 1	Color image: none

This thrush breeds almost entirely in the eastern United States and is abundant in southern Ontario. The northern breeding limit extends from northern Minnesota east to southern New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia. The southern limit reaches from east-central Texas east to northern Florida. Wintering birds and very late fall migrants occur casually in Florida, southern Louisiana, and southern and eastern Texas—accidentally farther north—but the main wintering grounds are found on Mexico’s Atlantic slope from Hidalgo southward, in lowlands of southern Mexico and Central America, and in northwestern Colombia. The species occurs casually north of the breeding range in southern Canada, as well as in the West Indies, the West, and Sinaloa (Howell and Webb 1995). Accidental records come from Iceland, the British Isles, and the Azores.

California’s first Wood Thrush was an adult male captured on 18 November 1967 in the Tijuana River valley, San Diego County (McCaskie 1971c). The species has since proven to be a casual vagrant to California, principally in late fall and late spring. The state’s eight autumnal records fall between 10 October and 25 November. A bird present from 21 to 26 December 1996 at Mountain Home Village in San Bernardino County may have been attempting to overwinter. The state’s only definite winter record is of a male present from 21 December 1983 to 23 March 1984 in San Francisco, San Francisco County. The seven spring records form a tight grouping between 2 and 19 June. An adult male that may have been summering was present 1–11 August 1968 in Glendale, Los Angeles County, before being killed by a cat. See also Appendix H.

Lane and Jaramillo (2000a) covered the distribution, molt, and identification of the Wood Thrush.