Turdus

Turdus
	Mistle thrush (T. viscivorus), the type species of the genus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Turdidae
Genus:	Turdus ; Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
	Turdus viscivorus ;
Species
	See text

Last updated November 25, 2024

Turdus is a genus of medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the wider thrush family, Turdidae. The genus name Turdus is Latin for 'thrush'.

Most of the species are called thrushes; the term thrush is also used for many other birds in the family Turdidae, as well as for a few species belonging to other families. Some Old World species with fully or largely black plumage are called blackbirds, and one, the ring ouzel, still retains the Old English name ouzel, which, until the 17th century, was also used (as "black ouzel") for the Common blackbird; it is cognate with the German name Amsel for the same species.^[1] Some New World species are called robins, the best known of which is the American robin. Two other species have their own distinct names without "thrush", fieldfare and redwing, from behavioural, and plumage features, respectively.

The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with species in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.^[2] Several species have colonised oceanic islands, and two European species have been introduced by man into Australia and New Zealand.

All the species are uniform in size and structure, with the great majority between 22–28 cm long; the smallest (Vanikoro island thrush) being 17–19 cm, and the largest (great thrush) being 28–33 cm. All have slender, medium-length bills. Plumage is far more variable; the only fully shared character is that the recently fledged juveniles are spotted on the breast and streaked on the back. Adult colours range from the "classical" thrush pattern of a plain brown back and a spotted breast (e.g. mistle thrush, song thrush), through all-brown (e.g. clay-colored thrush, black-billed thrush) or all-black (e.g. common blackbird, glossy-black thrush), pied (e.g. ring ouzel, white-collared blackbird), to orange- to red-breasted, either subtly (e.g. rufous-bellied thrush, grey-backed thrush) or boldly (e.g. American robin, red-throated thrush). Some show sexual dimorphism with the males brighter or more intensely coloured than the often browner females, while in others, the sexes are identical in plumage. All are omnivorous, with a mixed diet of invertebrates, fruit, and small seeds. The temperate northern hemisphere species are migratory to a greater or lesser extent to avoid the harsh freezing winters of northern Eurasia and North America, while the subtropical, tropical, and southern hemisphere species are generally nonmigratory. Many, or most, are noted for their melodious songs. Almost all occur in habitats with trees and shrubs, but many will also use open ground away from trees; some are highly adapted to rocky mountainous habitats, using steep slopes and rocks adeptly in predator avoidance. Many have adapted well to human presence and are common in urban and suburban gardens, while some are shy and avoid human presence, particularly where there is any history of bird hunting.^[2]

While some species have been split out of Turdus, the thrushes formerly separated in the genera Cataponera , Cichlherminia , Nesocichla , Platycichla and Psophocichla by various authors have been restored to the present genus in recent years.^[3]

Taxonomy and systematics

The genus Turdus was formally named by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae .^[4] The type species was subsequently designated as the mistle thrush.^[5] The name Turdus is the Latin word for a "thrush".^[6]

Current species

The genus contains 104 extant species of which two are recently extinct:^[3]

Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
Groundscraper thrush	Turdus litsitsirupa	Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Ethiopian thrush	Turdus simensis	Ethiopia, Eritrea
Chinese thrush	Turdus mupinensis	China and far northern Vietnam
Song thrush	Turdus philomelos	Europe, North Africa and the Middle East
Mistle thrush	Turdus viscivorus	Europe and temperate Asia
African thrush	Turdus pelios	from Senegal and Gambia in the west to South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea south to north-western Zambia and western Angola
Príncipe thrush	Turdus xanthorhynchus	Príncipe
São Tomé thrush	Turdus olivaceofuscus	São Tomé
Abyssinian thrush	Turdus abyssinicus	Africa from South Sudan south to northern Mozambique
Taita thrush	Turdus helleri	Taita Hills in Kenya
Usambara thrush	Turdus roehli	Tanzania
Olive thrush	Turdus olivaceus	Tanzania and Zimbabwe in the north to the Cape of Good Hope
Kurrichane thrush	Turdus libonyana	Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Comoro thrush	Turdus bewsheri	Comoros Islands
Bare-eyed thrush	Turdus tephronotus	Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania
Karoo thrush	Turdus smithi	South Africa, where it is present in Little Namaqualand, the Karoo and Northern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and parts of the North West Province
Somali thrush or Somali blackbird	Turdus ludoviciae	Somalia
Chinese blackbird	Turdus mandarinus	south, central and east China
Redwing	Turdus iliacus	Europe and Asia, from Iceland south to northernmost Scotland, and east through Scandinavia, the Baltic States, northern Poland and Belarus, and through most of Russia to about 165°E in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Common blackbird	Turdus merula	temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia
Yemen thrush	Turdus menachensis	Middle East
Taiwan thrush ^[7]	Turdus niveiceps	Taiwan
Grey-winged blackbird	Turdus boulboul	south-eastern Asia from the Himalayas to northern Vietnam
Indian blackbird	Turdus simillimus	India and Sri Lanka
Tickell's thrush	Turdus unicolor	Himalayas, and peninsular India
Black-breasted thrush	Turdus dissimilis	south-western China
Japanese thrush	Turdus cardis	central China and Japan and northern Laos and Vietnam
Grey-backed thrush	Turdus hortulorum	north-eastern China and Russia Far East and winters in southern China and northern Vietnam
Eyebrowed thrush	Turdus obscurus	Siberia south to China and Southeast Asia
Pale thrush	Turdus pallidus	south-east Siberia, north-east China and Korea and may breed in Japan
Grey-sided thrush	Turdus feae	north-east China and migrating to subtropical or tropical moist montane forest in India, and Indochina
Brown-headed thrush	Turdus chrysolaus	Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Japan, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Hainan and the northern Philippines
Izu thrush	Turdus celaenops	Izu and Ryukyu Islands of Japan
Mindoro island thrush	Turdus mindorensis (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Mindoro (northwest Philippines)
Luzon island thrush	Turdus thomassoni (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Luzon (north Philippines)
Mindanao island thrush	Turdus nigrorum (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Negros and Mindanao (Philippines)
Wallacean island thrush	Turdus schlegelii (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Sulawesi and Timor
Christmas Island thrush	Turdus erythropleurus (split from T. poliocephalus)	Christmas Island
Sundaic island thrush	Turdus javanicus (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Sumatra, Java and Borneo
Moluccan island thrush	Turdus deningeri (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Taliabu and Seram
Papuan island thrush	Turdus papuensis (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane New Guinea and Goodenough Island (D'Entrecasteaux Islands)
Bismarck island thrush	Turdus heinrothi (split from T. poliocephalus)	Bismarck Archipelago
Bougainville island thrush	Turdus bougainvillei (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Bougainville Island (north Solomon Islands)
Solomons island thrush	Turdus kulambangrae (split from T. poliocephalus)	montane Kolombangara and Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands)
Vanikoro island thrush	Turdus vanikorensis (split from T. poliocephalus)	Vanuatu and Utupua
White-headed island thrush	Turdus pritzbueri (split from T. poliocephalus)	south Vanuatu
New Caledonian island thrush	Turdus xanthopus (split from T. poliocephalus)	New Caledonia and satellites
† Tasman Sea island thrush	Turdus poliocephalus	Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island (east of Australia) (extinct)
Samoan island thrush	Turdus samoensis (split from T. poliocephalus)	Savaiʻi and Upolu in Samoa
Fiji island thrush	Turdus ruficeps (split from T. poliocephalus)	Fiji
Tibetan blackbird	Turdus maximus	Himalayas from northern Pakistan to south-eastern Tibet
White-backed thrush	Turdus kessleri	central China
Fieldfare	Turdus pilaris	Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Eastern France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River, the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China, Anatolia, Israel, Iran and Northwest India, and occasionally north-east India. It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and Cyprus. It is a very rare breeder in the British Isles, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Ring ouzel	Turdus torquatus	western and central Europe and also in the Caucasus and in the Scandinavian mountains
Black-throated thrush	Turdus atrogularis	east of Europe to Western Siberia and north-west Mongolia
Red-throated thrush	Turdus ruficollis	Asia
Dusky thrush	Turdus eunomus	south to south-east Asia, principally in China and neighbouring countries
Naumann's thrush	Turdus naumanni	South Asia to Southeast Asia
Chestnut thrush	Turdus rubrocanus	western Himalayas and central to south-western China; it winters in Eastern Himalaya and northern Southeast Asia
White-collared blackbird	Turdus albocinctus	Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan
Sulawesi thrush	Turdus turdoides	Sulawesi Island in Indonesia
American robin	Turdus migratorius	North America, from Alaska and Canada southward to northern Florida and Mexico
Black thrush	Turdus infuscatus	El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico
Rufous-collared thrush	Turdus rufitorques	Central America, south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, occurring in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Chiapas state in Mexico
Sooty thrush	Turdus nigrescens	Costa Rica and western Panama
Red-legged thrush	Turdus plumbeus	The Bahamas, Cayman Brac, Cuba, Dominica, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), Puerto Rico
Grand Cayman thrush	†Turdus ravidus	Grand Cayman (extinct since 1938)
White-chinned thrush	Turdus aurantius	Jamaica
Forest thrush	Turdus lherminieri	Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, and Saint Lucia
Mountain thrush	Turdus plebejus	southern Mexico to western Panama
Pale-eyed thrush	Turdus leucops	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela
White-eyed thrush	Turdus jamaicensis	Jamaica
La Selle thrush	Turdus swalesi	Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti)
Chestnut-bellied thrush	Turdus fulviventris	western Venezuela, western Colombia, Ecuador, northern Peru and north-western Bolivia
Plumbeous-backed thrush	Turdus reevei	Ecuador and Peru
Chiguanco thrush	Turdus chiguanco	Ecuador and the Altiplano
Andean slaty thrush	Turdus nigriceps	north-west Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru
Glossy-black thrush	Turdus serranus	northern Venezuela to north-western Argentina
Black-hooded thrush	Turdus olivater	Venezuela and Colombia
Great thrush	Turdus fuscater	Andes in western and northern Venezuela as far as Lara and Trujillo, the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and finally, northwest Bolivia
Austral thrush	Turdus falcklandii	south Argentina and south and central Chile
Lawrence's thrush	Turdus lawrencii	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela
Pantepui thrush	Turdus murinus	foothills of south Venezuela and Guyana
Blacksmith thrush	Turdus subalaris	north-east Argentina, eastern Paraguay and southern Brazil
Creamy-bellied thrush	Turdus amaurochalinus	central and eastern South America
Tristan thrush	Turdus eremita	British overseas territories of the isolated Tristan da Cunha archipelago
Marañón thrush	Turdus maranonicus	southern Ecuador and northern Peru
Black-billed thrush	Turdus ignobilis	western Amazonia and on the Guianan Shield, occurring in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and Bolivia
Campina thrush	Turdus arthuri	lowlands of south-eastern Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname, east Colombia and west-central Amazonian Brazil
Yellow-legged thrush	Turdus flavipes	northern Colombia, Venezuela, far northern Brazil, Trinidad, and Tobago, as well as parts of the Pakaraima Mountains in western Guyana, eastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, and far northeastern Argentina
White-throated thrush	Turdus assimilis	Central America
Dagua thrush	Turdus daguae	Panama to north-western Ecuador
White-necked thrush	Turdus albicollis	eastern Brazil, far northern Uruguay, eastern Paraguay and far north-eastern Argentina
Rufous-backed thrush	Turdus rufopalliatus	south-eastern Sonora to the south-eastern corner of Oaxaca along the coast and in the Río Balsas drainage, with isolated populations in Mexico City and Oaxaca City
Pale-vented thrush	Turdus obsoletus	Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru
Pale-breasted thrush	Turdus leucomelas	eastern and northern South America
Cocoa thrush	Turdus fumigatus	South America
Hauxwell's thrush	Turdus hauxwelli	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela
Rufous-bellied thrush	Turdus rufiventris	southeast Brazil from Maranhão south to Rio Grande do Sul states, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern regions of Argentina
Clay-colored thrush	Turdus grayi	South Texas (where it is rapidly expanding its range) to northern Colombia
Spectacled thrush	Turdus nudigenis	South America from Colombia and Venezuela south and east to northern Brazil, and in Trinidad and Tobago
Ecuadorian thrush	Turdus maculirostris	western Ecuador and far north-western Peru
Várzea thrush	Turdus sanchezorum	western Amazon
Unicolored thrush	Turdus haplochrous	Bolivia

Related Research Articles

The common blackbird is a species of true thrush. It is also called the Eurasian blackbird, or simply the blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a similar-looking local species. It breeds in Europe, western Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand. It has a number of subspecies across its large range; a few former Asian subspecies are now widely treated as separate species. Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory.

The ring ouzel is a mainly European member of the thrush family Turdidae. It is a medium-sized thrush, 23–24 centimetres (9.1–9.4 in) in length and weighing 90–138 grams (3.2–4.9 oz). The male is predominantly black with a conspicuous white crescent across its breast. Females are browner and duller than males, and young birds may lack the pale chest markings altogether. In all but the northernmost part of its range, this is a high-altitude species, with three races breeding in mountains from Ireland east to Iran. It breeds in open mountain areas with some trees or shrubs, the latter often including heather, conifers, beech, hairy alpenrose or juniper. It is a migratory bird, leaving the breeding areas to winter in southern Europe, North Africa and Turkey, typically in mountains with juniper bushes. The typical clutch is 3–6 brown-flecked pale blue or greenish-blue eggs. They are incubated almost entirely by the female, with hatching normally occurring after 13 days. The altricial, downy chicks fledge in another 14 days and are dependent on their parents for about 12 days after fledging.

The mistle thrush, also spelled missel thrush, is a bird common to much of Europe, temperate Asia and North Africa. It is a year-round resident in a large part of its range, but northern and eastern populations migrate south for the winter, often in small flocks. It is a large thrush with pale grey-brown upper parts, a greyish-white chin and throat, and black spots on its pale yellow and off-white under parts. The sexes are similar in plumage, and its three subspecies show only minimal differences. The male has a loud, far-carrying song which is delivered even in wet and windy weather, earning the bird the old name of stormcock.

The fieldfare is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic. It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter. It is a very rare breeder in the British Isles, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.

The redwing is a bird in the thrush family, Turdidae, native to Europe and the Palearctic, slightly smaller than the related song thrush.

The rosy starling is a passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae, also known as the rose-coloured starling or rose-coloured pastor. The species was recently placed in its own monotypic genus, Pastor, and split from Sturnus. This split is supported by recent studies, though other related species within its new genus are not yet known for certain.

The lesser yellowlegs is a medium-sized shorebird. It breeds in the boreal forest region of North America.

The wood thrush is a North American passerine bird in the family Turdidae and is the only species placed in the genus Hylocichla. It is closely related to other thrushes such as the American robin and is widely distributed across North America, wintering in Central America and southern Mexico. The wood thrush is the official bird of the District of Columbia.

The eyebrowed thrush is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It breeds in dense coniferous forest and taiga eastwards from Siberia and Mongolia to Japan. It is strongly migratory, wintering south to China and Southeast Asia. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe.

The blue rock thrush is a species of chat. This thrush-like Old World flycatcher was formerly placed in the family Turdidae. It breeds in southern Europe, northwest Africa, and from Central Asia to northern China and Malaysia. The blue rock thrush is the official national bird of Malta and was shown on the Lm 1 coins that were part of the country's former currency.

The varied thrush is a member of the thrush family, Turdidae. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Ixoreus.

The black-faced cuckooshrike is a common omnivorous passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. It has a protected status in Australia, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, 1974.

The chestnut-tailed starling, also called grey-headed starling and grey-headed myna is a member of the starling family. It is a resident or partially migratory species found in wooded habitats in India and Southeast Asia. The species name is after the distribution of a former subspecies in the Malabar region. While the chestnut-tailed starling is a winter visitor to peninsular India, the closely related resident breeding population with a white head is now treated as a full species, the Malabar starling.

The red-breasted meadowlark is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It was formerly named red-breasted blackbird but is not closely related to the red-winged blackbird group.

The pale thrush is a passerine bird of the eastern Palearctic belonging to the genus Turdus in the thrush family Turdidae. It is closely related to the eye-browed thrush and grey-backed thrush.

The white-chinned thrush, known in Jamaica as the hopping dick is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is endemic to Jamaica where it is common and widespread. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest.

The white-eyed thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae that is endemic to Jamaica. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest.

The red-legged thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. Native to the Caribbean, it is found in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. It formerly occurred on the Swan Islands, Honduras, but was extirpated there.

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 Abyssinian thrush is a passerine bird in the family Turdidae. It is also known as the African mountain thrush, or northern olive thrush The species was formerly treated as conspecific with the olive thrush but the species were split based on the genetic differences. The ranges do not overlap. The Abyssinian thrush is found in Eritrea and other parts of the Horn of Africa, as well as an area to the southeast extending from the African Great Lakes region to north eastern Zambia and Malawi.

References

↑ Lockwood, William Burley (1984). The Oxford Book of British Bird Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 112. ISBN 0-19-214155-4.
1 2 Clement, Peter; Hathway, Ren (2000-11-30). Thrushes. London: A & C Black. ISBN 0-7136-3940-7.
1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Thrushes". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
↑ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 168.
↑ Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1964). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 177.
↑ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 293. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
↑ "Species Updates – IOC World Bird List" . Retrieved 2021-05-27.

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[Lockwood-1] Lockwood, William Burley (1984). The Oxford Book of British Bird Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 112. ISBN 0-19-214155-4.

[Clement-2] 1 2 Clement, Peter; Hathway, Ren (2000-11-30). Thrushes. London: A & C Black. ISBN 0-7136-3940-7.

[ioc-3] 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Thrushes". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 25 September 2024.

[4] Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 168.

[5] Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1964). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 177.

[job-6] Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 293. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.

[7] "Species Updates – IOC World Bird List" . Retrieved 2021-05-27.

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