A wood thrush.
Why Wood Thrushes Need Woodlots
If you’ve ever walked your land on a warm summer’s evening and heard a flutelike song echoing through the trees, you may have been listening to one of the Credit River Watershed’s most enchanting residents—the wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina).
In May and June, this migratory bird can be spotted hopping through the leaf litter of a forest floor, searching for insects and invertebrates, like snails and beetles; or in the treetops, where the males melodically serenade their mate, and perhaps you.
Wood thrushes prefer to raise their young in a nest hidden within the understory of an established forest, shaded by the dense lower canopy of saplings and shrubs. But the wood thrush’s ideal breeding home of a healthy, mature mixed or deciduous forest, is shrinking.
Declining Habitat and Populations
While wood thrushes will breed and nest in fragmented forests with large trees, they thrive within the interior of a healthy, mature forest. Deep within the forest, they can settle within the dense lower canopy where they find protection from urban disturbances, predators, nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds and other threats.
The Credit River Watershed has lost much of the forest cover that once supported thriving populations. Through Credit Valley Conservation’s monitoring efforts, it has been established that forest cover is now just 24 per cent, compared to 67 per cent in 1851. Urban development and road construction will likely continue to impact wood thrush habitat in the watershed. Since 2002, wood thrush populations in the watershed have declined by 36 per cent.
Federally, the wood thrush is considered a threatened species, and both their population and habitat are protected. But protection alone can’t restore what’s been lost.
To help the wood thrush, landowners can manage invasive species, maintain woodlots and plant more native trees and shrubs to increase interior forest area and subcanopy and to connect fragmented forest stands. Older, coniferous plantations could also be thinned to encourage more of the deciduous growth that wood thrushes prefer.
Filling in the Gaps
Most of the land in the Credit River Watershed is owned by private landowners, which means your actions have a big impact. We’re here to help you keep hearing the wood thrush’s song in your woods. Connect with us for a free site visit to learn how.