Birds with speckled breasts are a sight to behold. These birds are known for their intricate and eye-catching patterns, which add a touch of beauty and uniqueness to their appearance. The speckled breast pattern can be found on a variety of bird species, from small songbirds to large raptors. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at some of the most notable birds with speckled breasts, their physical characteristics, behavior, and habitats. Whether you’re a seasoned birder or just starting, you’ll appreciate the beauty and diversity of these stunning birds. So, grab your binoculars, and let’s explore the world of birds with speckled breast feathers!
List of birds with speckled breast
1. Brown Thrasher
- Scientific name: Rhinopomastus minor
- Lifespan: 10-12 years
- Size: 20-30 cm
- Native to: Eastern and Central United States and Southern and central Canada
These stunning birds belong to the family Mimidae. They are songbirds with a life expectancy of around 10–14 years. Only this particular kind of Thrasher can be found east of the Rockies and central Texas.
The speckled Brown Thrasher has the largest repertory of songbirds, with over 1K different varieties. Typically, the notes in their songs repeat every two to three phrases.
Brown Thrashers are very protective of their nests and may even attack people when they feel in danger. If you like birding, it is crucial to keep in mind this.
Brown thrashers have long, black bills, a long brown tail, and a reddish brown body with speckled breasts.
Brown spots cover their white breast, beginning at the legs and continuing up to the neck. Their pleated wings give them a distinctive appearance.
If you want to see these birds, it’s necessary to know that they spend a lot of time close to the ground. The time when you would normally hear their cackling cry is when they are hiding in thickets.
2. Fox sparrow
- Scientific name: Passerella iliaca
- Lifespan: 10 years
- Size: 15–19 cm
- Native to: northern Canada and western North America from Alaska to California.
This large, chunky sparrow breeds in the mountains of the west and the far north, yet many birders only see it as a migratory or winter visitor. It produces a stunningly crystal-clear whistled song near its nesting habitat. Although many Fox Sparrows in the West are mostly grey or sooty brown, the name of the bird alludes to the vivid foxy-red color of the majority of eastern and northern populations.
These birds consume a variety of insects, including beetles, flies, true bugs, and others, as well as spiders and millipedes, during the mating season. During other seasons, seeds, mostly those of grasses and weeds (like smartweed), make up the majority of the diet.
Their eggs are light green to greenish white with prominent reddish-brown blotches. Only females may carry eggs for 12–14 days. The young are fed by both parents. After hatching, the young leave the nest after 9 to 11 days.
Males sing in the spring to protect their breeding areas, and they may also be violent against intruders of other species. The location of their nest is often on the ground, hidden by tall plants. Nests sometimes rise above the ground, often over 8 feet, among low bushes or trees.
3. American-Robin
- Scientific name: Turdus migratorius
- Lifespan: 2-5 years
- Size: 23 – 28 cm
- Native to: North America, wintering from southern Canada to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast
American Robin is a common garden bird in North America. The adult American robin’s breast is always orange, and the breast and underparts of juvenile birds are speckled.
American robins’ breasts get crimson as they get older. This often occurs between two and three months after birth.
Typically, the speckles are brown and golden. They are shielded from assaults by other animals in the area by this camouflage.
In addition to having speckled breast that becomes red as they get older, American robins have plump, brown heads, wings, and backs.
For most of their lives, American robins do not have a speckled breast, so if you see one, it means the bird is really young.
American robins often consume fruits, seeds, worms, insects, and other invertebrates. Mealworms and leftovers from bird tables are other favorites of theirs.
For birding, gardens or parks are the best places to search for American robins.
Additionally, keep an ear out for their song since, with the exception of winter, robins sing all year round.
They often are one of the last birds to stop singing as the day draws to a close and one of the first birds to start singing in the morning.
4. Speckle-breasted Wren
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- Scientific name: Pheugopedius sclateri
- Lifespan: 5 years
- Size: 13.5 to 15.5 cm
- Native to: northwestern Peru, southwestern Ecuador, and western Colombia
The speckle-breasted wren, also known as Pheygopedius sclateri, is the next bird on our list of birds with speckled breasts. The Troglodytidae family, which includes Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, is home to this bird.
These birds may be found mostly in wet tropical or subtropical montane forests, moist tropical or subtropical shrubland, and dry tropical or subtropical forests.
Speckle-breasted Warm brown is the hue of wrens. They have a face covered with white and black streaks, and their tail and undertail are barred.
These birds’ breasts are covered with little black spots. These birds are renowned for their distinctive, delightful song and cry.
5. Speckled Hummingbird
- Scientific name: Adelomyia melanogenys
- Lifespan: 3 to 5 years
- Size: 3 inches
- Native to Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela; as well as to some isolated montane forests in western Ecuador and Venezuela
South American birds called speckled hummingbirds, or Adelomyia melanogenys, may be found in Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
The top plumage of these hummingbirds is golden and green, and they have a recognizable long beak.
They have a light underbelly, and a pronounced black stripe runs from the eye to the neck. Above this, there is a white slash.
The color of their speckles is lovely copper and green. They seem incredibly shiny, and their body-wide fur is very glossy.
The spotted hummingbird is a relatively lonely bird. They don’t travel in groups or in couples. The females care for their young on their own. While they are in the nest, they look after them by giving them regurgitated food. The chicks will then leave the nest when they are 20 days old.
Hummingbirds often consume nectar from various fragrant and vividly colored flowers, herbs, and bushes. They lack a distinctive call and are a quiet kind of bird.
6. Song Thrush (speckled chest bird)
- Scientific name: Turdus philomelos
- Lifespan: 3 or 4 years
- Size: 8 to 19 – 21 cm
- Native to: United Kingdom eastward, through Scandanavia and much of Russia, and in the winter they are primarily found in western Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa.
These birds, sometimes known as Turdus philomelos, are members of the thrush family.
Sadly, the population of these birds has decreased recently. You may not see one in urban areas as it is usually found in gardens rather than in towns, cities, or agricultural areas.
These birds sing phrases repeatedly and like eating fruit, worms, and snails. These birds are generally found in the UK and Europe.
Song thrushes have stunning brown coats with black accents near their long tails. Moreover, they have a black underbelly with black speckles and a white and somewhat golden underside.
It’s crucial to note that this might vary amongst different song thrushes; normally, their speckles are more towards the top of the breast and sparser at the bottom.
7. Mistle Thrush (brown bird with speckled chest)
- Scientific name: Turdus viscivorus
- Lifespan: 3-5 years
- Size: 11 inches
- Native to: Europe
The mistle thrush is a significantly bigger songbird that is often seen in parks, gardens, woodlands, and scrub. It presumably got its popular name because it loves mistletoe and eats the berries since they are sticky.
Mistle Thrush in turn promotes the growth of mistletoe by unintentionally ‘planting’ its seeds when wiping its bill on the tree bark to remove the sticky residue. It also disperses the seeds in its droppings.
The mistle thrush has a white belly covered in circular, black, and white patches and has a light greyish-brown color on top. Compared to the Song or Wood Thrush, it is bigger and greyer.
The mistle thrush is often referred to as the “Rain Bird” because, following significant spring rains, it may frequently be heard singing loudly from the tops of tall trees.
These iconic small birds are widely distributed, however, they are not found on the highest mountains or on all of the Scottish islands.
8. Wood Thrush
- Scientific name: Hylocichla mustelina
- Lifespan: up to 8 years
- Size: 7 inches
- Native to: deciduous and mixed forests in the eastern U.S
The Wood Thrush is often heard before it is seen. From the lower canopy of mixed eastern woods, the male sings his ee-oh-lay song, which has a melancholy yet lovely flute-like quality.
If you want to see Wood Thrushes, look for them quietly scrounging through leaf litter and foraging on the forest floor. They make the most of any surrounding rubbish since they are the ideal small scavenger birds.
A songbird like the Wood Thrush needs 10 to 15 times more calcium to lay eggs than others would require to care for its young at the same developmental period.
Snail shells and other calcium-rich dietary supplements are thus essential for their effective reproduction. The population of Wood thrushes is decreasing because of the presence of these vital nutrients in soils damaged by acid rain.
9. The Chilean hawk (large brown bird with speckled breast)
- Scientific name: Accipiter chilensis
- Lifespan: n/a
- Size: 37 to 38 cm
- Native to: Andes forests from central Chile and western Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego
The Chilean hawk is a species of raptor that is a member of the hawk family. It breeds in Andes woods between sea level to 2,700 m height, from central Chile and western Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego (though birds are rarely observed above 1,000 m). Evidently, some spend winter in the plains of northwest Argentina.
The American Ornithological Society and other organizations sometimes classify it as a subspecies of the bicolored hawk, its northern cousin, and other times as a separate species. They exhibit different preferences in their habitat. The subspecies pileatus, which is intermediate in plumage between the bicolor and the Chilean and has been repeatedly attributed to either species by those who believe they are separate, complicates the matter further.
Although the exact method by which this predator captures its food is unknown, the hawks seem designed to pursue tiny birds across the whole forest. Giant insects may also be caught in midair by the hawk. Both active hunting for prey and waiting in ambush for potential targets have been seen in the feeding habits of the bird. Pairs may work together to hunt during the mating season because their varied sizes prevent them from engaging in intense competition for prey.
10. Barred Forest Falcon
- Scientific name: Micrastur ruficollis
- Lifespan: n/a
- Size: 46 to 60 cm
- Native to: Mexico south to northern Argentina.
The last bird in our list of birds with speckled breasts is the Barred Woodland-Falcon. Like other members of the genus Micrastur, the Barred Woodland-Falcon has a long graduated tail and small, rounded wings that enable it to fly through thick forest. This species is native to the tropical woods of America and comes in both grey and brownish colors. There are presently six recognized subspecies.
The mature male of the species has upper parts that are dark brown and grey. Three thin white bars and a white tip are often seen on the long tail.
The Barred Forest-Falcon may be found in tidal swamps, or humid, damp tropical forests.
It is sometimes observed higher than 2500 meters in height.
Final thoughts on birds with speckled breast
This concludes our list of birds with speckled breasts. We hope that it helped you to understand more about the habitats, preferred meals, and other traits of these birds.
Few activities are as soothing as birding. Because there are so many different kinds of birds, it’s a hobby that never gets old.
Enjoy Birding!!!
