Veery Catharus fuscescens Scientific name definitions

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology dedicates this account in honor of Maria Schneider, member of the Lab of Ornithology's Administrative Board.

A tawny-colored thrush with a mellifluous song that cascades through the deep woods on its breeding grounds in the United States and Canada, the Veery bears a scientific name that reflects the beauty of its song and coloration: Catharus, from the Greek katharos, means “pure,” referring possibly to the texture of the song, and fuscescens, from the Latin fuscus, means “dusky” (Choate 1985 Choate, E. A. (1985). The Dictionary of American Bird Names. Revised edition. Harvard Common Press, Cambridge, MA, USA. Close ). It was first described in Wilson and Bonaparte 1831 Wilson, A. and C. L. Bonaparte. (1831). American ornithology; or, the natural history of the birds of the United States. Philadelphia, PA: Porter and Coates. Close by ornithologist Alexander Wilson, who gave the species two names—Wilson's Thrush and Tawny Thrush (Wilson and Bonaparte 1831 Wilson, A. and C. L. Bonaparte. (1831). American ornithology; or, the natural history of the birds of the United States. Philadelphia, PA: Porter and Coates. Close ).

This Nearctic–Neotropical migrant regularly crosses the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea during spring and fall migration. Once in South America, the Veery initially settles in the southern Amazon basin, but it also undertakes an intratropical migration to a second overwintering site in mid-season. In North America it breeds in early-successional, damp, deciduous forests, often near streamside thickets or swamps. Where its breeding range overlaps those of the Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) and Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus), the Veery generally chooses wetter, younger woodlands than these other thrush species. It is primarily a ground forager, feeding mostly on insects when breeding and adding fruit in late summer and fall. The Veery's distinctive, ethereal song prevails at dusk, and this species can distinguish between the vocalizations of neighbors and strangers, reacting aggressively when the latter intrude on a territory.

Key foundational studies of the Veery have focused on vocalizations (Stein 1956 Stein, R. C. (1956). A comparative study of "advertising song" in the Hylocichla thrushes. Auk 73:503-512. Close , Dilger 1956b Dilger, W. C. (1956b). Hostile behavior and reproductive isolating mechanisms in the avian genera Catharus and Hylocichla. Auk 73:313-353. Close , Samuel 1972b Samuel, D. E. (1972b). Song variation and other vocalizations of Veeries. Bird-Banding 43:118-127. Close ), migratory behavior (Cochran et al. 1967 Cochran, W. W., G. G. Montgomery and R. R. Graber. (1967). Migratory flights of Hylocichla thrushes in spring: a radiotelemetry study. Living Bird 6:213-225. Close , Cochran 1972 Cochran, W. W. (1972). "Long-distance tracking of birds." In Animal orientation and navigation, edited by S. R. Galler, K. Schmidt-Koenig, G. J. Jacobs and R. E. Belleville, 39-59. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Close , Suthers 1987 Suthers, H. B. (1987). Old field succession and bird life in the New Jersey sourlands. Records of New Jersey Birds 13:54-64. Close , Diehl and Larkin 1998 Diehl, R. H. and R. P. Larkin. (1998). Wingbeat frequency of two Catharus thrushes during nocturnal migratrion. Auk 115:591-601. Close ), and how the Veery and other spot-breasted thrush species partition habitat on their breeding grounds (Dilger 1956a Dilger, W. C. (1956a). Adaptive modifications and ecological isolating mechanisms in the thrush genera Catharus and Hylocichla. Wilson Bulletin 68:171-199. Close , Bertin 1977a Bertin, R. I. (1977a). Breeding habitats of the Wood Thrush and Veery. Condor 79:303-311. Close , Noon 1981 Noon, B. R. (1981). The distribution of an avian guild along a temperate elevational gradient: the importance and expression of competition. Ecological Monographs 51:105-124. Close ). A flurry of recent Veery studies have focused on nest site selection (Heckscher 2004 Heckscher, C. M. (2004). Veery Nest Sites in a Mid-Atlantic Piedmont Forest: Vegetative Physiognomy and Use of Alien Shrubs. American Midland Naturalist 151 (2):326-337. Close ), overwintering distribution and movement behavior (Remsen 2001 Remsen, Jr., J. V. (2001). True winter range of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens): lessons for determining winter ranges of species that winter in the tropics. Auk 118:838-848. Close , Heckscher et al. 2011 Heckscher, C. M., S. M. Taylor, J. W. Fox, and V. Afanasyev. (2011). Veery (Catharus fuscescens) wintering locations, migratory connectivity, and a revision of its winter range using geolocator technology. Auk 128:531-542. Close , Heckscher et al. 2015 Heckscher, C. M., M. R. Halley and P. M. Stampul. (2015). Intratropical migration of a Nearctic-Neotropical migratory songbird (Catharus fuscescens) in South America with implications for migration theory. Journal of Tropical Ecology 31:285-289. Close ), stopover ecology in South America (González-Prieto et al. 2011 González-Prieto, A. M., K. A. Hobson, N. J. Bayly, and C. Gómez. (2011). Geographic origins and timing of fall migration of the Veery in northern Colombia. Condor 113:860-868. Close , Bayly et al. 2012 Bayly, N. J., C. Gomez, K. A. Hobson, A. M. Gonzalez, and K. V. Rosenberg. (2012). Fall migration of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens) in Northern Colombia: Determining the energetic importance of a stopover site. Auk 129:449-459. Close , Gómez et al. 2014 Gómez, C., N. J. Bayly and K. V. Rosenberg. (2014). Fall stopover strategies of three species of thrush (Catharus) in northern South America. Auk 131:702-717. Close ), vocalizations (Heckscher 2007 Heckscher, C. M. (2007). Use of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens) call repertoire in vocal communication. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. Close , Belinsky et al. 2012 Belinsky, K. L., J. L. Hogle, and K. A. Schmidt. (2012). Veeries experience more varied acoustic competition at dawn than at dusk. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124:265-269. Close , Schmidt and Belinsky 2013 Schmidt, K. A. and K. L. Belinsky. (2013). Voices in the dark: Predation risk by owls influences dusk singing in a diurnal passerine. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 67 (11):1837-1843. Close , Belinsky et al. 2015 Belinsky, K. L., C. E. Nemes and K. A. Schmidt. (2015). Two novel vocalizations are used by Veeries (Catharus fuscescens) during agonistic interactions. PLOS One 10 (3):e0120933. Close , Brennan and Jones 2016 Brennan, C. L, and A. W. Jones. (2016). Song structure and cadence of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens) in the Appalachian Mountains. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 128:75-85. Close ), breeding biology (Halley and Heckscher 2012 Halley, M. R., and C. M. Heckscher. (2012). Multiple male feeders at nests of the Veery. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124:396-399. Close , Halley and Heckscher 2013 Halley, M. R., and C. M. Heckscher. (2013). Interspecific parental care by a Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) at a nest of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 125:823-828. Close , Halley et al. 2016 Halley, M. R., C. M. Heckscher, and V. Kalavacharla. (2016). Multi-generational kinship, multiple mating, and flexible modes of parental care in a breeding population of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens), a trans-hemispheric migratory songbird. PLOS One 11 (6):e0157051. Close ), use and effect of alien plant species (Heckscher 2004 Heckscher, C. M. (2004). Veery Nest Sites in a Mid-Atlantic Piedmont Forest: Vegetative Physiognomy and Use of Alien Shrubs. American Midland Naturalist 151 (2):326-337. Close , Heckscher et al. 2014 Heckscher, C. M., S. M. Taylor, and C. C. Sun. (2014). Veery (Catharus fuscescens) nest architecture and the use of alien plant parts. American Midland Naturalist 171:157-164. Close , Meyer et al. 2015 Meyer, L. M., K. A. Schmidt and B. A. Robertson. (2015). Evaluating exotic plants as evolutionary traps for nesting Veeries. Condor 117 (3):320-327. Close ), effects of predators on nests (Schmidt et al. 2006 Schmidt, K. A., R. S. Ostfeld and K. N. Smyth. (2006). Spatial heterogeneity in predator activity, nest survivorship, and nest-site selection in two forest thrushes. Oecologia 148 (1):22-29. Close , Schmidt and Ostfeld 2008b Schmidt, K. A. and R. S. Ostfeld. (2008b). Numerical and behavioral effects within a pulse-driven system: Consequences for shared prey. Ecology 89 (3):635-646. Close ), and systematics and divergence in terms of migration and morphology in this and other Catharus thrushes (Outlaw et al. 2003 Outlaw, D. C., G. Voelker, B. Mila, D. J. Girman and R. Fleischer. (2003). Evolution of long-distance migration in and historical biogeography of Catharus thrushes: A molecular phylogenetic approach. Auk 120 (2):299-310. Close , Winker and Pruett 2006 Winker, K. and C. L. Pruett. (2006). Seasonal migration, speciation, and morphological convergence in the genus Catharus (Turdidae). Auk 123 (4):1052-1068. Close , Topp et al. 2013 Topp, C. M., C. L. Pruett, K. G. McCracken and K. Winker. (2013). How migratory thrushes conquered northern North America: A comparative phylogeography approach. Peerj 1:e206. Close ). This species remains poorly studied on its overwintering grounds in South America, where it spends up to 8 months of the annual cycle.