Mistle Thrush

Turdus viscivorus

Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
Presence in the Strait: Resident
Abundance: common
IUCN (global): LC · Least concern
In Spanish: Zorzal charlo

Photograph: Frank Sengpiel, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Length: 27 cm
Weight: 120 g

Presence in the Strait

Common resident in cork oak woods.

Identification

Large, stout appearance; long tail with white tipped outer tail feathers, plain brownishgrey back, underparts with larger, more rounded black spots than a Song Thrush. In flight, prominent white underwings.

Movements

Prenuptial peaks in 2nd hf. February and 1st hf. March; postnuptial migration in 2nd hf. October. Resident juveniles dispersal seen in July.

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

14 %

Peak in November. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 27 March 1973
Latest record: 29 November 2024

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Not included
Spanish Catalogue: Not included
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: LC · Least concern · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Same genus in the Strait

Common Blackbird24–25 cm · Resident
Ring Ouzel24–24 cm · Migrant
Song Thrush23–23 cm · Seasonal
Redwing21–21 cm · Seasonal
Fieldfare25.5–25.5 cm · Occasional

Species of the same genus that also occur here, ordered by how close they are in size. Being relatives does not mean they are confused in the field, but that is where the doubts start: compare size and season.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
GBIF taxon key: 2490774

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Frank Sengpiel, CC BY, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Mistle Thrush

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Movements

Gallery