There was one voice that was new to me, whose appeal was reinforced by no rare memories, though given glamour by Alaskan song and story — the voice of the VARIED THRUSH. Its single note with its mysterious vibrant trill had been heard from the mountain tops in the chorus of morning and evening; and on one red letter day, from the wood road one of the rare birds had actually been seen near enough to distinguish its golden brown, dark-collared breast.
But not until one Sunday morning when I was sitting quietly in the fern field, did I really hear the wonderful song. Then through the clear air, each single, long-swelling note came down from the ridge above like the peal of a golden bell. It was indeed a Voice from the Heights! The best songs from the lower levels and even those of the Olive-sided and the Nuttall Sparrow lead up to it, for the song of the Sparrow is full of plaintive yearning, and the call of the Flycatcher, pure and clarion toned though it be, has a note of striving in its exaltation; but the voice of the Varied Thrush seems the voice of one who has attained. And as it comes from the Heights with their far view over the ocean, it seems to voice the serene philosophic spirit by which life, death, and the veiled hereafter seem links in the chain of the ordered Universe, upon which, with bared head, one may gaze, content to bear his part.
— F. M. Bailey
Western North America. Breeds in Hudsonian and Upper Canadian zones from Yukon delta, Kowak valley and Mackenzie delta south to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and southern part of Mackenzie valley, and south in mountains thru eastern British Columbia to northwestern Montana and northeastern Oregon. Winters mainly in the interior of California south to Los Angeles county.