Spring's Bird of the Month: Bassian Thrush

The bird of the month for September is the Bassian Thrush (Zoothera lunulata), a songbird species occurring in south-eastern Australia.

In the Illawarra, they are commonly seen in rainforest areas along the lower escarpment. With their mottled plumage, they blend in perfectly to the forest floor and like to forage amongst the leaf litter for invertebrates. Curiously, their melodic call is very similar to that of the European Common Blackbird, an introduced species that also occurs locally and belongs to the same family; Turdidae.

A great place to see Bassian Thrushes in the open is Stafford farm track in Mount Kembla, as they will forage for worms along the wide path, which is where I was able to photograph this bird.