Mountain thrush | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Turdidae |
Genus: | Turdus |
Species: | T. plebejus |
Binomial name | |
Turdus plebejus Cabanis, 1861 | |
The mountain thrush (Turdus plebejus) is a large thrush which is found in Central America. It was formerly known as the mountain robin. Some authorities refer to it as the American mountain thrush to differentiate it from the Abyssinian thrush (Turdus abyssinicus), known in their taxonomy as the African mountain thrush. [2]
The mountain thrush resembles other Turdus thrushes in general appearance and habits. It is 23–26 cm (9.1–10.2 in) long and weighs 86 g (3.0 oz) on average. The adult is uniformly dull olive-brown with faint white streaks on the throat. The bill is black and the legs are dark brown. The juvenile resembles the adult, but has buff or orange streaks on the head and upperparts, and dark spotting on the underparts. Two superficially similar relatives share this species range: the sooty thrush is blacker with an orange bill, eye ring and legs, and the clay-colored thrush is much paler and yellow-billed.
There are three poorly defined subspecies:
This is a bird of tall mountain forests and adjacent more open areas and woodland edge which breeds in highlands from southern Mexico to western Panama. Its preference is for oak with many epiphytes and mosses, normally from 1,800 m (5,900 ft) altitude to the timberline. It descends in flocks as low as 900 m (3,000 ft) in the wet season.
The mountain thrush behaves like other thrushes. It forages on large branches or on the ground, in flocks when not breeding, progressing in hops and dashes with frequent stops. It turns leaf litter seeking small fruits, insects and spiders.
It builds a grass or rootlet-lined large cup nest, concealed amongst epiphytes, 3–12 m (9.8–39.4 ft) above the ground on a tree branch. The female lays 2–3 unmarked greenish-blue eggs between March and June. The breeding season song is an unthrushlike mechanical monotone chip chip cher chip chip cher cher, and the call is a high seee or whip.
The white-necked thrush is a songbird found in forest and woodland in South America. The taxonomy is potentially confusing, and it sometimes includes the members of the T. assimilis group as subspecies, in which case the "combined species" is referred to as the white-throated thrush. On the contrary, it may be split into two species, the rufous-flanked thrush and the grey-flanked thrush.
The yellow-legged thrush is a songbird of northern and eastern South America and the Caribbean.
The clay-colored thrush is a common Middle American bird of the thrush family (Turdidae). It is the national bird of Costa Rica, where it is well known as the yigüirro. Other common names include clay-colored robin.
The buffy tuftedcheek or Lawrence's tuftedcheek is a passerine bird in the ovenbird family, which breeds in the tropical New World in Costa Rica, western Panama and the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the streaked tuftedcheek, P. boissonneautii, of South America. Birds from Colombia and Ecuador are sometimes considered a separate species, the Pacific tuftedcheek(P. johnsoni).
The yellow-bellied siskin is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds from Costa Rica south to southern Ecuador, central Bolivia and the highlands of northwestern Venezuela.
The scarlet-rumped cacique is a passerine bird species in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds from eastern Honduras to Panama and in the Pacific lowlands of South America from western Colombia south to Ecuador, and in the lower reaches of the northern Andes. There are several subspecies, some of which have been proposed for elevation to full species status.
The long-tailed silky-flycatcher is a passerine bird which occurs only in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama, usually from 1,850 m altitude to the timberline. It is a thrush-sized species weighing about 37 g. The silky-flycatchers are related to waxwings, and like that group have soft silky plumage.
The black-billed nightingale-thrush is a small thrush endemic to the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama. Its position in the genus Catharus is somewhat equivocal, but it is apparently closer to the hermit thrush than to the other nightingale-thrushes except the russet nightingale-thrush and/or the ruddy-capped nightingale-thrush.
The sooty thrush is a large thrush endemic to the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama. It was formerly known as the sooty robin.
The black-faced solitaire is a bird in the thrush family endemic to highlands in Costa Rica and western Panama.
The black-faced grosbeak is a large seed-eating bird in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae), which is a resident breeding species from south-eastern Mexico to eastern Panama.
The silver-throated tanager is a species of passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and northeastern Peru. It inhabits mossy forests, montane evergreen forests, tropical lowland evergreen forests and forest edges, along with tall secondary forests and disturbed habitat with remnant trees and forest. It is 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long and weighs 22 grams (0.78 oz) on average, and shows slight sexual dimorphism, with duller female plumage. Adult males are mainly bright yellow, with a silvery-white throat bordered above with a black stripe on the cheeks, black streaking on the back, and green edges to the wings and tail. Juveniles are duller and greener.
The white-whiskered puffbird, also called the white-whiskered soft-wing or brown puffbird, is a near-passerine bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found from southeastern Mexico through Central America, Colombia, and Ecuador into Peru.
The ochraceous wren is a small songbird of the wren family. It is a resident breeding species in Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia.
The spot-crowned woodcreeper, is a passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World from central Mexico in the east, the Sierra Madre Orientals, to northern Panama.
The black-and-yellow phainoptila or black-and-yellow silky-flycatcher is a species of bird in the family Ptiliogonatidae. It is monotypic within the genus Phainoptila. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama.
The emerald tanager is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama. Described by the English ornithologists PL Sclater and Osbert Salvin in 1869, it is a medium-sized species that has a length of 10.6–13 cm (4.2–5.1 in) and a mass of 18–20.5 g (0.63–0.72 oz). It can be identified by its bright green plumage, with black streaking on the back and wings, and a black auricular patch and beak. It also has yellow on the crown and rump. The species shows slight sexual dimorphism, with the females being duller and having yellow-green in place of yellow on the head.
The white-throated thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in Mexico and Central America, ranging south to central Panama. This species has been referred to in some literature as "white-throated robin." However, that name is now more usually applied to the Old World species Irania gutturalis.
The Tibetan blackbird is a species of bird in the thrush family Turdidae. It is found in the Himalayas from northern Pakistan to southeastern Tibet. Originally described as a separate species by Henry Seebohm in 1881, it was then considered a subspecies of the common blackbird until 2008, when phylogenetic evidence revealed that it was only distantly related to the latter species. It is a relatively large thrush, having an overall length of 23–28 centimetres. Males are blackish-brown all over with darker plumage on the head, breast, wings and tail and dull orange-yellow bills, while females have browner underparts, faint streaking on the throat, and a dull darkish yellow bill. Both sexes may seem slightly hooded. It can be differentiated from the common blackbird by its complete lack of an eye-ring and reduced song.
The rufous-backed thrush is a songbird of the thrush family. It is endemic to the Pacific slope of Mexico. It is also known as the rufous-backed robin.