Northern Waterthrush

About the Northern Waterthrush

The Northern Waterthrush is a warbler built like a thrush and behaving like a sandpiper: brown above, pale below with dense dark streaking, a strong pale eyebrow stripe, and a rear end that bobs constantly as the bird walks.

It lives at the waterline, walking the muddy edges of still and slow-moving water, flipping dead leaves and probing for aquatic insects, snails, and other invertebrates. The call is a loud, metallic chink that carries far; the song is a ringing series that speeds toward the end.

Waterthrushes breed across Canada and the northern states and pass through Texas in spring and fall, when any wooded pond edge, resaca, or dripping thicket may host one working the shoreline.