Song thrush "thrush." Mavis (Μαβής) can also mean "purple" in Greek. A recent molecular study indicates that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush ("T. viscivorus") and Chinese thrush ("T. mupinensis"); these three species are early offshoots from the lineage of "Turdus" thrushes before they diversified and spread across the globe, and hence are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird ("T. merula"). The song thrush has three subspecies, with the nominate subspecies, "T. p. philomelos", covering the majority of the species' range. "T. p. hebridensis", described by British ornithologist William Eagle Clarke
Song thrush rich yellow background colour to the underparts. It is a partial migrant with some birds wintering in southern France and Iberia. This form intergrades with the nominate subspecies in central Europe, and with "T. p. hebridensis" in the Inner Hebrides and western Scotland, and in these areas birds show intermediate characteristics. Additional subspecies, such as "T. p. nataliae" of Siberia, proposed by the Russian Sergei Buturlin in 1929, are not widely accepted. The song thrush (as represented by the nominate subspecies "T. p. philomelos") is 20 to 23.5 centimetres (8 to 9.25 in) in length and weighs 50–107 grammes (1.8