Black-throated Thrush - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo by Jeremy Inglis
Swansea, Wales, U.K., March 2006

Identification

Bill black with yellow base on lower mandible (variable extent)
Faint supercilium
Grey back (can be brownish or bluish depending on conditions and individual)
Rufous to buffy underwing
Throat black in male summer plumage, can be mostly covered by pale feather tips in fresh (fall) plumage
Throat with black spots often assembled in stripes in female summer plumage, can be mostly covered by pale feather tips in fresh (fall) plumage
Shadow of grey spotting or streaks on underside to about the legs

Female in winter plumage
Photo by tom tams
Newholm, North Yorkshire, U.K. January 2010

Breeds in Russia from just west of the Uran to eastern Siberia, winters to Caucasus, India and China. Vagrants to most of the Western Palearctic, mainly in winter.

Black-throated Thrush is monotypic.

It has until recently been treated as a subspecies under Red-throated Thrush Turdus ruficollis.

Mixed and coniferous forests for breeding, more open areas in winter including in gardens.

Will eat apples on the ground when occurring as vagrant in western Europe.

Dickinson, Edward C. (ed.). 2003. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691117010
Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
Knox, A.G. et al. 2008. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Fifth report. Ibis, 150, 833–835
Beaman, M., S. Madge, K.M. Olsen. 1998. Fuglene i Europa, Nordafrika og Mellemøsten. Copenhagen, Denmark: Gads Forlag, ISBN 87-12-02276-4
Wikipedia