There is a place where cool streams flow and the sweet scent of ferns is strong. It is in precisely such tranquil places that the unobtrusive wood thrush retreats from human commotion.

In these hidden places, this forest bird breeds, feeds and sings through the summer season. With his burnt sienna back plumage and white breast streaked in contrasting black spots, the ground-dwelling thrush is difficult to see in the dappled light of the forest. In fact, most of us who know anything of his presence detect him by his song.

In the semi northern hardwood forests of Connecticut’s Litchfield County, I once discovered a moist grove where the songs of several wood thrush filled the spring air. It was there where I made camp one evening beneath the low branches of a hemlock. While the late afternoon light faded, the thrush began their chorus and I leaned back on my bed made of hemlock bows to listen.

Listening to thrush sing is a spiritual experience for me. And to hear them sing at close range, as I have on only a few occasions, is a real peak moment; there is that special quality, that ethereal sound, which is the result of the thrush’s unique voice box. Something unusual happens in the final phase of their song when two separate notes are sung simultaneously. I believe these simultaneous notes give the song the supernatural or spiritual quality.

The wood thrush has a Y-shaped syrinx or dual voice box and the two notes sung at the same time harmonize the very instant they are produced. The left box produces the low notes and the right the high notes. It requires precision breathing and channeling of air to create this unique music.

Listening very carefully that evening in the grove I noticed the wood thrush’s extensive repertoire. Only in true research, using sound recordings, can an ornithologist distinguish all of the songs the wood thrush has to choose from, but what is interesting is that a wood thrush often chooses his songs randomly. That’s not the case for the hermit thrush, which deliberately alternates songs.

For example, if the hermit thrush’s first song is a low pitched song, then he will skip up to a very high-pitched song the next time. This also holds true when singing in response to a rival male; the rival sings a high pitched song and the hermit thrush answers with a low-pitched song. Similarly, a wood thrush never answers a rival male with the same song as most birds do — instead they will answer back with a completely different song.

Although the wood thrush is quickly declining, they are still reasonably common and places such as my hidden grove can be found. However, the experience of that camp site only can be arrived at from within. For one must decide to really listen and become aware to hear the true beauty of the wood thrush.

Robert Tougias is a birding author who lives in Colchester. He is available for presentations and will answer questions at rtougias@snet.net.