Eyebrowed thrush

The eyebrowed thrush (Turdus obscurus) is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. The scientific name comes from Latin Turdus, "thrush" and obscurus "dark".[2]

Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

Eyebrowed thrush
Temporal range: 0.09–0 Ma
Late Pleistocene present
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
Genus: Turdus
Species:
T. obscurus
Binomial name
Turdus obscurus
Gmelin, 1789

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.

It nests in trees, laying 4-6 eggs in a neat nest. Migrating birds and wintering birds often form small flocks. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms and berries.

From Khonoma village in Nagaland, India.

This is an attractive thrush, with a grey back and head, the latter having a black eyeline, bordered white above and below. The breast and flanks are orange, and the belly white. The sexes are fairly similar, but immatures have a browner back.

The male has a simple whistling song, similar to the related mistle thrush.

In 2007 an eyebrowed thrush was sighted at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory in Jerusalem.[3] This is the second recorded sighting in Israel; the first was at Eilat in October 1996.

In 2011, an eyebrowed thrush was sighted in Australia, near Malanda in Queensland.[4] This is possibly the first confirmed sighting of the species on the Australian mainland.

Fossil record

In 2017, an assessment of late Pleistocene Indonesian passerines found a fossil of this species.[5]

References

  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Turdus obscurus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 278, 393. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. Jacobs, Megan (5 November 2007). "Rare bird is sighted in Jerusalem". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  4. "Eye-browed Thrush – First for Australia, Feb. 9, 2011, Bird-o.com". Archived from the original on 2012-07-08. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
  5. Meijer, Hanneke J.M.; Awe Due, Rokus; Sutikna, Thomas; Saptomo, Wahyu; Jatmiko; Wasisto, Sri; Tocheri, Matthew W.; Mayr, Gerald (2017-08-17). "Late Pleistocene songbirds of Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia); the first fossil passerine fauna described from Wallacea". PeerJ. 5. doi:10.7717/peerj.3676. PMC 5563437. PMID 28828271.
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