White-necked Thrush - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Anselmo d Affonseca
São Paulo, Brazil, May 2014

Turdus albicollis

Identification

20½-26 cm. Dark brown upperparts, white throat with dark streaks, white central belly and vent, legs grey or reddish depending on subspecies, and a red or yellow eye-ring.
Chest and flanks are grey in the northern form (phaeopygos group) but tinged rufous-brown in the albicollis group.
Sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller, lacking the stripes on the throat but with dull orange spotting above and brownish spotting below.

Distribution

An adult bird of race phaeopygoides
Photo by Steve G
Main Ridge Forest Reserve on Tobago

Eastern Brazil, far northern Uruguay, eastern Paraguay, far north-eastern Argentina, and separate in Bolivia, north and western Brazil, the Guianas, Venezuela, the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Taxonomy

This species has in the past been lumped with White-throated Thrush

Subspecies

Seven subspecies are recognized:

• T.a. phaopygoides:

• North East Colombia to northern Venezuela; winters to Trinidad and Tobago

• T.a. phaeopygos:

• Extreme eastern Colombia to the Guianas and northern Amazonian Brazil

• T.a. spodiolaemus:

• Eastern Ecuador to eastern Peru, northern Bolivia and western Brazil

• T.a. contemptus:

• Yungas of Bolivia (La Paz, Santa Cruz and Tarija)

• T.a. crotopezus:

• Eastern Brazil (Bahia, Espírito Santo and Alagoas)

• T.a. albicollis:

• South East Brazil (Rio de Janeiro to Rio Grande do Sul)

• T.a. paraguayensis:

• South West Brazil (Mato Grosso) to Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina

These fall in two well separated groups: The first four subspecies (the phaeopygos group) are found north of a line from the north-east Brazil to Bolivia, while the rest (the nominate group) are found south of a line a few hundred km further south and not reaching west of Paraguay.

Habitat

Humid forest, woodland, and second growth from lowlands to about 1500 m.

Behaviour

Diet

Mainly a ground-feeder, the diet includes invertebrates and some fruit and berries. They regularly follow army ant swarms.

Breeding

The nest is a lined cup of twigs placed low in a tree or bush. The clutch consists of 2 or 3 greenish-blue eggs with reddish-blotches, which are incubated by the female for 12-13 days.

Vocalisation

Song, albicollis. Regua, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Recording by Andrew Whitehouse

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Kenefick, Restall, Hayes, 2007. Field guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13557-2
3. Richard ffrench. 1991. A guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago. Comstock/Cornell Paperbacks. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2
4. Ber van Perlo. 2009. A field guide to the Birds of Brazil. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-530155-7
5. Ridgely and Tudor 2009. Field guide to the songbirds of South America - the passerines. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, USA. ISBN 978-0-292-71979-8

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-necked Thrush. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-necked_Thrush

External Links

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