2 Thrushes from Madre de Dios (se Peru) (1 Viewer)

[Thibaud]

Hi everybody,

I've had very poor luck so far with the various species of thrushes that can be found in the Peruvian lowlands, and the only one I've seen with regularity is the Black-billed thrush, which is actually way more common at 1500-2000 masl than closer to sea level, at least where I used to hang out in central Peru.
Now, I recently spent two weeks in Madre de Dios, which was absolutely mind-boggingly amazing, but I digress.
One morning (June 16th, to be precise), I was at the Estancia Bello Horizonte, which has a very neat boardwalk crossing through a moriche palm swamp, and I ran into a nice mixed flock feeding on palm fruits at the interface between the forest and the palm swamp. I was busy trying to photograph a couple of sneaky Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlets, when two thrushes flew into the same tree in quick succession, only allowing me these suboptimal shots.
I'm wondering if the first one might be Hauxwell's, as photos online show it to be less reddish than what the illustrations in Birds of Peru had me thinking, and some photos do seem to show that scaling on the undertail coverts.
I'm even less sure about the second one. Pale-breasted maybe?
I wouldn't even be that surprised if y'all told me that I'm high on fumes and these are actually both Black-billed. Still, I'm including a Black-bill photo that I took in central Peru as reference.

As always, many thanks in advance!

T

 

[THE_FERN]

First looks like black-billed to me (sorry!). Can't remember if it's affected by the recent putative split. Like you I was stuck by how different individuals of this can appear (a "house wren" bird).

The second doesn't look like a thrush at all to me (e.g. bill shape). Best guess is the southern form of bright rumped attila

 

[Thibaud]

First looks like black-billed to me (sorry!). Can't remember if it's affected by the recent putative split. Like you I was stuck by how different individuals of this can appear (a "house wren" bird).

The second doesn't look like a thrush at all to me (e.g. bill shape). Best guess is the southern form of bright rumped attila

Thanks, I was hoping you'd chime in!
Very good point about the second bird! Looking again at my photos, the pretty obvious rictal bristles are another clue.
There definitely were attilas around, both Dull-capped and Bright-rumped, see attached photos of the 2 Bright-rumps I snapped that day, which look quite different (though of course, talk about a polymorphic species).
What about Grayish Mourner?

 

[njlarsen]

A little off topic: The gallery has only two images of the parrotlet you mention and they are both from Ecuador. (hint-hint)
Niels

 

[THE_FERN]

Bright-rumps I snapped that day, which look quite different

I think the second bright rump image does looks pretty similar to the mystery bird when we factor in things like the angle. I could see what I thought was a pale eye on the mystery one

 

[cajanuma]

I like the first one as a Hauxwell's, it's quite richly colored below, the undertail covert pattern fits, and habitat would be better for Hauxwell's than Black-billed if well inside forest (and if it was in an area of transition between Moriche palm swamp and forest, I'm guessing the forest was varzea?)

I agree that the second one is not a thrush, but it has me stumped for now.

 

[Thibaud]

I like the first one as a Hauxwell's, it's quite richly colored below, the undertail covert pattern fits, and habitat would be better for Hauxwell's than Black-billed if well inside forest (and if it was in an area of transition between Moriche palm swamp and forest, I'm guessing the forest was varzea?)

I agree that the second one is not a thrush, but it has me stumped for now.

Yes, it's varzea, which then transitions quickly to terrace forest, as the lodge is set about 100 meters above the level of the moriche swamp, and about 200 meters in a straight line from where I saw the birds.

 

[Thibaud]

A little off topic: The gallery has only two images of the parrotlet you mention and they are both from Ecuador. (hint-hint)
Niels

Ahaha well my photos didn't come out that great. Let me check out the Ecuadorian photos and I'll see if mine will make a useful addition!

 

[AveryBartels]

Second bird looks like Greyish Mourner to me, certainly not an Attila with that bill shape. I'm a bit out of practice with those Amazonian thrushes so won't comment there.

 

[THE_FERN]

Second bird looks like Greyish Mourner to me, certainly not an Attila with that bill shape. I'm a bit out of practice with those Amazonian thrushes so won't comment there.

Interesting suggestion. Checking Macaulay images, I see none with the plumage variation we see here (all are basically monochromatic, certainly without throat streaks), and the broad bill base seems off too. Indeed, afaics, the mourner has the narrower bill base. On the other hand, I can't see evidence of the prominent bill hook we'd expect from the attila

I had a look at the thrushes again. I saw hauxwell's in deep dark varzea forest, a very different habitat to the one here (if it's the location I think). I have seen black-billed macauley images and birds in the field which looked similar to this one (and very different to the birds of peru illustration of that species).

My main reason for thinking it's not hauxwell's is the bill and head shape. Macaulay (headline) images tend to show a pronounced, quite bulbous "snout". (A few don't show this so pronounced). Afaics there's overlap in plumage tones, especially if you factor in lighting etc. although perhaps I don't peg it as as richly, darkly coloured as I'd expect for hauxwell's.

As ever, happy to be proved wrong...

 

[Thibaud]

Here's a crazy proposal for bird#2 : Cinereous mourner! The yellow eyering and orange shoulder spots could be pretty much invisible on my unfortunate photos, but looking at photos on Macaulay, the jizz and color scheme do look like a decent match to me.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Any chance the second bird is a screaming piha?

 

[THE_FERN]

Cinereous mourner
screaming piha

Perhaps, but for me the jizz is very off for either. They are both monochromatic birds, very plain. I think a big objection is the throat streaks. We can see those in both pics so they're not just artifacts from (e.g.) feather displacement. Happy to be wrong but I think I stick at Attila. Fact that T saw them that day seems like good circumstantial evidence to me