Mistle Thrush (redirected from missel thrushes)

mistle thrush, missel thrush

a large European thrush, Turdus viscivorus, with a brown back and spotted breast, noted for feeding on mistletoe berries

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Mistle Thrush 

(Turdus viscivorus ), a bird of the family Turdidae Of the order Passeriformes. It is the largest of the European thrushes, with a body measuring up to 30 cm long. The back is grayish brown, and the underpart is light with dark spots. The bird inhabits the pine forests (in the north) and deciduous forests of Europe and Asia, as far east as the Sayan Mountains and as far south as the Himalayas. It nests in trees and lays a clutch of four-five greenish eggs. The mistle thrush feeds on invertebrates as well as berries (of the mountain ash, mistletoe), the seeds of which it distributes because they are not digested. In the years of abundant mountain ash harvest, the mistle thrush sometimes winters in the north.