OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH: FORMERLY KNOWN AS SWAINSON’S THRUSH

September 24, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Close Up Of Olive-backed Thrush On Stump

Swainson’s Thrushes, aka Olive-backed Thrushes, hopefully Olive-backed replaces Swainson’s in the coming removal of eponymous English names by the American Ornithological Society (AOS). It is easy to miss Olive-backed Thrushes in their deep-forest, forest floor haunts until they sing. Like their forest thrush taxonomic cousins they have a flutelike upward-spiraling ethereal song.But even then you […]

WHAT’S IN A NAME? RESPECT FOR THE BIRD OR VANITY OF ITS LATE-COMING DISCOVERER?

September 20, 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Olive-backed Thrush aka Salmonberry Bird aka Swainson's Thrush

In field guides, this species is listed as Swainson’s Thrush, with a note that they are often called Olive-backed. And a case can be made for Salmonberry Bird, at least for the population on the NW coast of the U.S. and the coast of Canada’s Inland Passage. I’m going with Olive-backed because it could be […]