Rosy Thrush-Tanager - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo by Stanley Jones
El Valle de Antón, Coclé Province, Panama, March, 2013

Rhodinocichla rosea

Identification

20 cm.
Male is dark grey on upperside with most of underside rosy. Supercilium is rosy in front of eye, white behind it. Flanks sooty to grey.
Female similar but with rosy replaced by orange-buff, cinnamon, or ochraceous depending on subspecies.

Variation

Supercilium is pale rosy in Mexico and almost absent in birds from Sierra de Perijá (Colombia/Venezuela)

Distribution

Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela (absent between Mexico and Costa Rica).

Taxonomy

Photo by PanamaHarpy
Chiriqui highlands, Panama September 2013

Five subspecies are recognized¹:

• R. r. schistacea
• R. r. eximia
• R. r. harberti
• R. r. beebei
• R. r. rosea

All five subspecies seems to be isolated from the others, the greatest distance being for schistacea from Mexico to eximia in south-west Costa Rica.

Habitat

Undergrowth of forests, varying between dry thorn forest in Mexico and humid second growth in Costa Rica; in between habitats used further south. In all locations at relatively low elevations (up to 1500 m asl).

Photo by George Edwards
Chiriqui highlands, Panama

Behaviour

Skulking. Groundliving bird likely to be heard shuffling leaf-litter around; frequently, both members of a pair will be close to each other. Will fly up on branches if feeling threatened, and will also sing from a low branch. Does not follow mixed flocks.

Song is loud and melodious, but even the singing bird is difficult to see.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Howell & Webb, 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198540124
3. Garrigues and Dean 2007. The birds of Costa Rica - a field guide. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-7373-9
4. Ridgely and Tudor 2009. Field guide to the songbirds of South America - The Passerines. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71979-8

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Rosy Thrush-Tanager. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 17 June 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Rosy_Thrush-Tanager

External Links

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