Bird name:

Veery

Catharus fuscescens

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Thrushes (Turdidae)

Code 4

VEER

Code 6

CATFUS

ITIS

179796

Breeding Location:

Bushes, shrubs, and thickets, Forests

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Fairly common

Egg Color:

Pale blue

Number of Eggs:

3 - 5

Incubation Days:

10 - 12

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Grass, bark strips, weed stems, twigs, and moss., Lined with soft bark and dry leaves.

Migration:

Migratory

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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 southern British Columbia east to Newfoundland and south to Arizona, South Dakota, Minnesota, New Jersey, and in mountains to 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. Hermit Thrush has olive-brown upperparts, pale gray underparts spotted with dark brown, and red-brown tail and rump.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America