Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Sunday, August 5, 2025
Even though the Swainson’s Thrush nests across North America, primarily north of the 49th parallel, for some reason it wasn’t discovered until 1840 from a bird found near Vancouver, Washington. It prefers to nest in coniferous forests at higher elevations, but will also use mixed growth forests at lower levels. Unlike many birds, it often sings during migration, which is a bit surprising since we often assume males sing to establish breeding territory which in turn attracts females. Obviously, this must not be the case here as the birds continue to move northward.
Most of our North American songbirds, including this thrush, are seasonally monogamous. But in this species the pair-bonding process is done a bit differently. This is because the females exhibit an unusually high degree of nesting site fidelity, of re-nesting near the site of last year’s nest. Since the males are the first to arrive on the breeding grounds, they may initially try to drive off the arriving females from their territory. However, the persistence of the female to remain on familiar territory will often result in multiple season pairings. It may not seem like the ideal basis for long term marriages to us, but it seems to work for the thrush.
As Christians who hold up the ideal model of marriage as the one given in Eden, we sometimes struggle to reconcile God’s willingness to “overlook” such things as polygamy and other inconsistencies we find among God’s people in the Old Testament. While I don’t think we should use birds and bees as our models, I do think God must be much more willing to use what we hand Him. His grace is so much greater than our own performance, which is the only thing that gives hope to people like you and me.