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First Known Song Thrush Breeding Population Reported in Sicily’s Nebrodi Mountains

Song thrush perched among leafy branches
Conservation · Population & status

The first known breeding population of Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) in Sicily has been reported from the Nebrodi Mountains in Messina Province. The short 2026 note states that the population was found in recent years in northeastern Sicily and reports the presence of breeding birds there.

The distinction between a breeding population and the island’s first breeding record is important. A 2019 paper by Andrea Corso had already reported the first documented nesting of Song Thrush in Sicily. The 2026 paper therefore does not establish the first nesting event on the island; it reports the first known population breeding there.

A status change beyond a single nesting record

This distinction matters because the Sicilian bird checklist updated on 1 January 2026 still listed Song Thrush as a migrant and winter visitor, without a breeding category. The new Nebrodi report provides evidence that breeding is no longer represented only by an isolated nesting record.

The paper is a two-page regional status note rather than a demographic study. Its central contribution is geographical and faunistic: it identifies a breeding population in the Nebrodi Mountains and places breeding by Song Thrush more firmly within Sicily’s documented avifauna.

The note does not establish an island-wide expansion

The source does not demonstrate a long-term population increase across Sicily, nor does it show how widely the breeding population extends beyond the Nebrodi Mountains. The population was found in recent years, but the short report does not by itself establish whether numbers are increasing, stable or temporary.

The conclusion therefore needs to remain narrow: Sicily already had a published nesting record from 2019, while the 2026 Nebrodi note documents the island’s first known breeding population. Future observations will be needed to show how persistent and geographically extensive that population becomes.

Sources and image credit

  1. Corso, A., Scuderi, A., & Viganò, M. (2026). Breeding population of Song Thrush Turdus philomelos (Aves Turdidae) in Sicily, on the Nebrodi Mts. Il Naturalista Siciliano, 50, 295–296.Primary two-page journal note reporting the first known breeding population of Song Thrush in Sicily, in the Nebrodi Mountains of northeastern Sicily (Messina Province).
  2. Corso, A. (2019). Prima nidificazione di Tordo bottaccio Turdus philomelos (Aves Turdidae) per la Sicilia. Il Naturalista Siciliano, 43(1), 123–124.Context source confirming that the first documented nesting in Sicily had already been published in 2019.
  3. Birds of Sicily: annotated Check-list — update 1 January 2026Context source. The January 2026 checklist still listed Song Thrush as migrant and winter visitor without a breeding category.

Image: TRinaud — Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) photographed in Bielefeld, Germany, 7 May 2021; Wikimedia Commons; CC BY 4.0. Representative species image, not a bird from the Nebrodi population. · CC BY 4.0 · Source

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