It is a year-round resident in a large part of its range, but northern and eastern populations migrate south for the winter, often in small flocks.

The male has a loud, far-carrying song which is delivered even in wet and windy weather, earning the bird the old name of stormcock.

[2] Found in open woods, parks, hedges and cultivated land, the mistle thrush feeds on a wide variety of invertebrates, seeds and berries.

The open cup nest is built against a trunk or in a forked branch, and is fearlessly defended against potential predators, sometimes including humans or cats.

There was a range expansion in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and a small decline in recent decades, perhaps due to changes in agricultural practices.

[8] There are more than 60 species of medium to large thrushes in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.

They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird (T. merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.

It has pale grey-brown upperparts, the chin and throat are greyish-white, and the yellowish-buff breast and off-white belly are marked with round black spots.

Juveniles are similar to adults, but they have paler upperparts with creamy 'teardrop' centres to many of the feathers and smaller spots on the yellowish underparts.

The southwestern subspecies T. v. deichleri resembles T. v. bonapartei in appearance, but is closer in size to the nominate T. v. viscivorus, although it has a more slender bill.

[13] The male mistle thrush has a loud melodious song with fluted whistles, sounding like chewee-trewuu ... trureetruuruu or similar, repeated three to six times,[13] and used to advertise his territory, attract a mate and maintain the pair bond.

The male is most vocal in the early morning, and its tendency to sing after, and sometimes during, wet and windy weather led to the old name "stormcock".

Between mid-October and November, large numbers cross the Strait of Gibraltar and others pass through Cyprus, but there is hardly any migration across the North Sea.

[13] Vagrant birds have occurred in the Azores, China, Crete, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Japan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sikkim and the United Arab Emirates.

[1][13] In the winter 2017/2018 the first record of a mistle thrush in North America was at Miramichi in New Brunswick, found on 9 December 2017 and remaining until 24 March 2018.

[21] The mistle thrush is found in a wide range of habitats containing trees, including forests, plantations, hedges and town parks.

In Germany and elsewhere in central Europe, it was found only in coniferous forest until the mid-1920s when its range rapidly expanded, first into farmland, and then to suburbs and urban parks.

[23] Mistle thrushes are found as individuals or pairs for much of the year, although families forage together in late summer,[13] and groups may merge to form large flocks when food sources are plentiful.

[13] The mistle thrush is quite terrestrial, hopping with its head held up and body erect; when excited, it will flick its wings and tail.

[26] Breeding typically commences in mid-March in the south and west of Europe (late February in Britain), but not till early May in Finland.

[13] Plant food includes the fruits and seeds of bushes and trees, mainly holly, yew, rowan, ivy and mistletoe, but also, for example, blackberry, cotoneaster, crab apple, cherry, elder, hawthorn, olive, sea-buckthorn, and rose.

[13] Young birds are initially mainly fed on invertebrates, often collected from low foliage or under bushes rather than in the grassland preferred by the adults.

[29] Although the thrush normally feeds on the ground and from low bushes, the defence of this resource conserves fruit for later in the season when other food items become scarce.

[29] As its name implies, the mistle thrush is important in propagating the mistletoe, an aerial plant parasite, which needs its seeds to be deposited on the branches of suitable trees.

The highly nutritious fruits are favoured by the thrush, which digests the flesh leaving the sticky seeds to be excreted, possibly in a suitable location for germination.

[52][53] The mistle thrush has an extensive distribution in Europe and western Asia, and its European breeding population is estimated at 9–22.2 million birds.

[1] The perceived decline may be due to the loss of invertebrate-rich pastures and mixed farms through conversion to arable agriculture or more intensively managed grassland.

Adult survival, clutch size and fledging success are all lower in arable landscapes than in areas with extensive pasture.

[54] Desiderius Erasmus's early sixteenth-century collection of Latin proverbs included Turdus malum sibi ipse cacat (the thrush himself excretes his own trouble), which refers to the use of the sticky mistletoe berries favoured by this species as an ingredient in birdlime, used to trap birds.

[60] The loud call of this common and conspicuous bird also led to many old or local names, including "screech", "shrite" and "gawthrush".