A melodious song escapes from the branches of a tree.
You raise your head, intrigued, but only have time to see the brown back of a sparrow flying away.
Was it the female of the blackbird, the famous blackbird, or a thrush?
To remove any doubt, here are the main differences to know between these two birds.
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Recognize a merlette
The merlette has a relatively homogeneous color tending towards brown.
His back and stomach are café au lait;
his throat is slightly lighter, almost red.
We notice scattered brown spots on the front of its body, with little contrast, except on the throat.
Unlike the male blackbird, its bill is not bright yellow but dull orange.
Its legs are dark brown.
The merlet is 23 to 29 cm long and has a total wingspan of 34 to 38 cm, including a tail of approximately 10 cm.
It weighs between 80 and 125 g.
It is slightly smaller than the male blackbird.
Recognize a thrush
Several thrushes can be confused with the female blackbird: the musician, the thrush or even the litorne.
The song thrush is the smallest (22 cm) and the black thrush is the largest (27 cm).
These three birds have common characteristics, including a beige or pale yellow belly, even white, speckled with brown.
These spots are round in the black thrush and droplet-shaped in the song thrush.
The back of the song thrush is brown, that of the drainpipe and the litorne are gray.
The thrushes' legs are pink.
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Merlet or thrush: the main differences
Several elements can help you positively identify the bird you are dealing with:
The belly and throat
: brown to red in the merlette;
beige to white in thrushes.
The legs
: brown for the merlette;
dews for thrushes.
The
song
: a fluted melody very pleasant to the ear for the blackbird;
series of simple patterns repeated three or four times for the song thrush.
Their behavior does not distinguish them too much.
Thrushes and merlettes are very solitary and can be found all year round in France, in gardens and forests.
However, it should be noted that the thrush is much more discreet.
Female blackbirds, on the contrary, are active on the ground and hop around in search of food.