Song Thrush (gouache style)

The song thrush is a warm-brown bird with a cream breast covered in neat, arrow-shaped spots. It's smaller and browner than the mistle thrush, which has bolder, rounder spots and a greyer back. The song is loud and varied, and each phrase is repeated two or three times, which makes it easy to tell from a blackbird. Song thrushes line their cup-shaped nests with a smooth layer of mud and rotten wood.

Song thrushes eat worms, insects and berries, and when the ground is dry or frozen they turn to snails, cracking the shells on a favourite stone known as an anvil. Don't use slug pellets, and keep a damp, shady corner where snails and worms can thrive. Hedges and dense shrubs give them nesting cover from March. Berrying plants such as holly, rowan and hawthorn feed them through autumn and winter, and a bird bath helps in dry weather.

A speckled song thrush stands on a garden path beside a stone and an empty snail shell. Together, the stone and shell tell the story: this is the thrush's anvil, where snails get broken open. That small clue is why the moment was chosen. If you find a ring of broken shells round a stone, a song thrush isn't far away.