Always difficult when using closer focus and all you can do is set-up and hope ... and then along comes a really cooperative bird who seems to know exactly what range is in focus, exactly centre frame area. Lucky.
They seem to like the hedgerow as you see them there but never in neighbouring fields. I found it interesting the dragging it's beak left to right through the leaf litter (at first I assumed it was cleaning its beak).
Lovely clear footage. I've only seen Song Thrush in my garden about twice. Not really garden birds here, yet they're in the parks & in the local wilder areas they are relatively common & widespread. I think in smaller spaces they suffer from interspecific competition with Blackbirds, the latter being slightly larger, tends to dominate. However as I've mentioned quite a few times on here Blackbird numbers around here are the lowest I've known. Numbers are better in the wilder locations, but in gardens almost non-existent. I've seen one male down my road 3 times in the last week or so & heard one in my nearest park yesterday (normally 10+).
The best place for tame & abundance with Song Thrushes seems to be the Isles of Scilly, where they can be ridiculously tame.
What surprised me was the "beak wiping" - which I guess/assume is a form of digging the leaf litter/compost to expose insects/grubs/seeds. But that's a guess not based on any knowledge. It's actually in a shallow ditch that never has any water in it (it's at the top of a hill) trees either side so the soil at the bottom must be layers of decomposed leaves building up each year and nothing to compact it (other than deer).
I've often watched our blackbirds do this beak-wiping behaviour, too.
Sometimes they would do it while sitting on a branch and 'polish' their beak against the bark- I don't know if this was a cleaning action or not.
However, other times I would see them capture a tiny slug, (they never went after the large ones) and they would rub it repeatedly against either a paving slab or a rock. I read somewhere, (might have been on WaB?) that they do this to clean the slug's slime off... perhaps it doesn't taste nice, but in any case our female blackbird would work and work wiping a slug off until it was practically pulverised!
It might be that's what your song thrush is doing as well. I watched the clip twice, and at 29 seconds you can briefly see what appears to be a tiny slug in the bird's beak. Here's a screen grab of it:
.... However, other times I would see them capture a tiny slug, (they never went after the large ones) and they would rub it repeatedly against either a paving slab or a rock. I read somewhere, (might have been on WaB?) that they do this to clean the slug's slime off... perhaps it doesn't taste nice, but in any case our female blackbird would work and work wiping a slug off until it was practically pulverised!
It might be that's what your song thrush is doing as well. I watched the clip twice, and at 29 seconds you can briefly see what appears to be a tiny slug in the bird's beak. Here's a screen grab of it: ....
I wondered about that but thought it was then dropped and not picked-up again (but difficult to tell).
