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Mistle Thrushes (especially the eastern race "bonapartei") are the largest thrushes native to Europe. They have a mostly grey head and nape of the neck, with light-grey malar stripes and a grey throat/chin lined on either side by a brown stripe. The chest and sides are heavily spotted dark-brown. The base colour of the upper chest is light-brown, while the lower chest, belly, vent and undertail are off-white. The upperparts are olive-grey; the tail is dark-grey. The irises are black. The bill is dark-grey, with a yellowish base of the lower mandible. The legs and feet are grey. Juveniles have plainer colours than adults.

Twitcher's tip

Compared to Fieldfares, Mistle Thrushes do not have an ochre or rufous chest patch and thereby look much plainer.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Mistle Thrush is available HERE .

Mistle Thrushes are a migratory Eurasian species with three recognized races. They are present all year round in central and southern Europe and eastward from there. They also stay all year round in some northern parts of Asia Minor, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and to the South-east of the Caspian Sea. In summertime they migrate and thereby extend their range to include much of Scandinavia, all of eastern Europe (except the far-northern Arctic parts of Russia) and eastward into central Asia. They are winter visitors to parts of south-eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Mediterranean East coast and north-western Africa.

In central Europe nominate race "viscivorus" is found. They are permanent residents basically anywhere to the West and South of a line connecting Frisia, on the Dutch/German border, with the Danube delta. During the breeding season they extend their range to include almost all of Scandinavia (except the western and northern parts of Norway), Finland, the Baltic states and much of north-western Russia.

Race "viscivorus"