Puzzling absence of species synonymous with mistletoe

Despite its association with mistletoe - the provider of excuses for many a tipsy seasonal kiss - the mistle thrush is largely unembraced by makers of Christmas cards.
A mistle thrush, photographed by Amy Lewis.A mistle thrush, photographed by Amy Lewis.
A mistle thrush, photographed by Amy Lewis.

Robins continue to be easily the most common bird seen on mantlepieces and sideboards at this time of year.

A browse through the RSPB’s current range of cards shows that barn owls are also popular, their snowy white breasts perfectly matching winter backgrounds that are all deep and crisp and even. Then there’s wrens, blue tits, blackbirds, kingfishers and - it goes without saying - partridges in pear trees.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There’s even a selection of puffin cards, which is rather odd given that in winter most “sea parrots”, as puffins are often called, forsake their UK breeding grounds for the Atlantic.

When I checked for mistle thrushes in the British Trust for Ornithology’s Christmas card catalogue I also drew a blank. No one, it seems, loves the mistle thrush. Yet when you observe one in good light, as I did on the outskirts of Pickering recently, it is a very attractive bird.

Larger than its more widespread sibling, the song thrush, the greyer upper parts contrast with bolder, rounder spots on its creamy breast and flanks. When seen on the ground it adopts a very striking upright posture on its beautiful yellow legs.

The scientific name, Turdus viscivorus, translates as “thrush that devours mistletoes” and the species has had this reputation since the days of Aristotle. Mistletoe is a semi-parasitic plant which produces waxy berries on olive trees around the Mediterranean.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Here in the UK mistletoe is found on any tree with a soft bark, and is particularly associated with apple trees.

The story often told to children is that the seeds in those white mistletoe berries stick to beaks of mistle thrushes, and they are spread when the birds clean their beaks on the branches of other trees. An alternative belief, attributed to the great Northumberland ornithologist Thomas Bewick, is that mistletoe seeds only germinate if they have first passed through the gut of a mistle thrush.

In Yorkshire, there doesn’t seem much evidence of the berries being eaten by mistle thrushes. Mistletoe is not particularly widespread here. The old name for mistle thrushes across the three Ridings was hollin cock, which suggests the bird was better known for eating the red berries of holly trees.

The species has a large range of regional names. In the Craven area of the Dales it used to be known as the Norman thrush, although the origin has been lost in the mists of time.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Far more obvious is its Derbyshire name, skirlock (pronounced “skeerlock”), a reference to the bird’s piercing alarm call.

And widespread in the north is the name Jeremy Joy, thought to be a corruption of January Joy, which it acquired because of a reputation for singing with great gusto during snowstorms. Surely that alone should earn the mistle thrush a place on Christmas cards.

Related topics: