The wood thrush is an omnivore, and feeds preferentially on soil invertebrates and larvae, but will also eat fruits.

The wood thrush is monogamous, and its breeding season begins in the spring; about 50% of all mated pairs are able to raise two broods, ranging in size from two to four chicks.

[4] The wood thrush was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[5][6] Gmelin based his account on the "Tawny thrush" that had been described in 1785 by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant in his book Arctic Zoology.

[9] The generic name is a translation of its common name, derived from the Greek words ύλη (hyle, "woodland") and κιχλη (cichle, "thrush" or "fieldfare").

[12][13] It has been considered close to the long-distance migrant species of that genus, as opposed to the generally resident nightingale-thrushes, but that appears to be an error.

It is distinctly larger than the Catharus thrushes with which the species is often sympatric but slightly smaller than the common American robin.

[18] American naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote: Whenever a man hears it he is young, and Nature is in her spring; wherever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates of Heaven are not shut against him.While the female is not known to sing, the male has a unique song that has three parts.

[15] The wood thrush's breeding range extends from Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia in southern Canada to northern Florida and from the Atlantic coast to the Missouri River and the eastern Great Plains.

It migrates to southern Mexico through to Panama in Central America in the winter, mostly in the lowlands along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Migration takes place at night,[16] allowing them to find their direction from the stars and orient themselves by detecting the Earth's magnetic field.

[16] The breeding habitat generally includes trees taller than 16 m (52 ft), a fairly open forest floor, moist soil, and leaf litter, with substrate moisture more important than either canopy cover or access to running water.

The wood thrush can breed in habitat patches as small as 0.4 hectares (0.99 acres), but it runs the risk of higher predation and nest parasitism.

In recent times, as a result of fragmentation of forests, it has been increasingly exposed to nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds, as well as loss of habitat in the winter range.

A study by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology was the first large-scale analysis that linked acid rain to this thrush's decline.

[15] After breeding and before migration, the wood thrush will switch from insects to fruits with high lipid levels.

In the summer, low fruit consumption and lipid reserves require the bird to feed on insects continuously in order to meet its metabolic needs.

[16] The wood thrush forages mainly on the forest floor, flipping leaves over with its bills to reveal insects.

[16] Eggs and chicks are vulnerable to chipmunks, raccoons, blue jays, American crows, black rat snakes, brown-headed cowbirds, common grackles, southern flying squirrels, gray squirrels, least weasels, white-footed mice, domestic cats, great horned owls, and sharp-shinned hawks.

[16] Some male wood thrushes arrive at the breeding grounds several days before the earliest females while other males arrive at the same time as the females, establishing territories ranging in size from 0.08 to 0.8 hectares (one-fifth of an acre to two acres).

[4] The female typically leads silent circular flights 1–1.8 m (3.3–5.9 ft) from the ground, with the male chasing.

It is usually made of dead grasses, stems, and leaves, and lined with mud, and placed in a fork at a horizontal branch.