General

Veery: Medium-sized thrush with rust-brown upperparts, indistinct pale gray eye-ring, white underparts, and faint rust-brown spots on breast. Dark race has gray-brown upperparts and breast spots. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Veery: Breeds from British Columbia east across southern Canada to Newfoundland and south to Colorado, Minnesota, and east to New England, extending along the Appalachian Mountains into northern Georgia. Spends winters in tropics. Inhabits moist deciduous woodlands; prefers willow thickets along streams in the west.

Breeding and Nesting

Veery: Three to five pale blue eggs are laid in a cup nest made of grass, stems, twigs, and moss, lined with soft bark and dry leaves, and built atop a platform on dry ground sheltered by shrubs, grass, or weeds; nest is sometimes built in a low tree or shrub. Incubation ranges from 10 to 12 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Veery: Eats insects, spiders, berries, and fruits. Forages on the ground and in trees; swoops from low perch to take prey on the ground, or gleans food from branches, foliage, or the ground.

Readily Eats

Raisins, Currants, Nut Meal

Vocalization

Veery Western: Song is a pleasant, liquid, descending "veer-u, veer-u, veer-u" with each note sung lower, repeated frequently with variation in phrasing. Call is harsh, down-slurred "veer."

Similar Species

Veery: Wood Thrush is larger, and has dark spotting on breast, sides, and upper belly.