On 27 April Renaud Pintiaux observed an ABA Code-4 Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) in Tadoussac, Quebec, (France’s first trading post on the mainland of New France) on the northwest shore of the St. Lawrence River at the confluence with the Saguenay River (cold fresh water meets the warmer salt water of the St. Lawrence creating habitat for an abundance of krill and thus whales).
Although most thrushes are solitary during the breeding season, in Scandinavia at least, Fieldfare nests semi-colonially where they employ a group mobbing technique against corvids and raptors that includes directional defecation (Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 10). Luckily American Robins do not use that technique.
Fieldfare is casual in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. It has bred in western Greenland and is a regular winter visitor to Iceland. The breeding range includes Greenland and the Palearctic region including northwestern and central Europe to Kazakhstan and the southwestern Russian Far East. It winters south to North Africa, the Middle East, and northeastern Iran (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).
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