Thrush (bird)

This article is about birds in family Turdidae. For other birds known as thrushes, see Thrush (disambiguation) § Birds. For the mouth disease, see candidiasis.

Thrushes
American robin, a true thrush
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Suborder:	Passeri
Family:	Turdidae Rafinesque, 1815
Genera
Some 20, see text

Thrushes make up the Turdidae, a family of passerine birds that occurs worldwide.

Characteristics

Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground. The smallest thrush may be the forest rock thrush, at 21 g (0.74 oz) and 14.5 cm (5.7 in). However, the shortwings, which have ambiguous alliances with both thrushes and Old World flycatchers, can be even smaller. The lesser shortwing averages 12 cm (4.7 in). The largest thrush is the blue whistling thrush, at 178 g (6.3 oz) and 33 cm (13 in). The great thrush is similar in length, but less heavily built. Most species are grey or brown in colour, often with speckled underparts.

They are insectivorous, but most species also eat worms, land snails, and fruit. Many species are permanently resident in warm climates, while others migrate to higher latitudes during summer, often over considerable distances.

Thrushes build cup-shaped nests, sometimes lining them with mud. They lay two to five speckled eggs, sometimes laying two or more clutches per year. Both parents help in raising the young.

The songs of some species, including members of the genera Catharus, Myadestes, Sialia and Turdus, are considered to be among the most beautiful in the avian world.

Ecology

Turdidae species spread the seeds of plants, contributing to the dispersal of many species and the recovery of ecosystems.

Plants have limited seed dispersal mobility away from the parent plant and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant individually or collectively, as well as dispersed in both space and time.

Many bats and birds rely heavily on fruits for their diet, including birds in the families Cotingidae, Columbidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, and Rhamphastidae. While eating fruit, these animals swallow seeds and then later regurgitate them or pass them in their faeces. Such ornithochory has been a major mechanism of seed dispersal across ocean barriers.

Other seeds may stick to the feet or feathers of birds, and in this way may travel long distances. Seeds of grasses, spores of algae, and the eggs of molluscs and other invertebrates commonly establish in remote areas after long journeys of this sort. The Turdidae have a great ecological importance because some populations migrate long distances and disperse the seeds of endangered plant species at new sites, helping to eliminate inbreeding and increasing the genetic diversity of local flora.

Taxonomy

The taxonomic treatment of this large family has varied significantly in recent years. Traditionally, the Turdidae included the small Old World species, like the nightingale and European robin in the subfamily Saxicolinae, but most authorities now place this group in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.

This article follows the Handbook of the Birds of the World with edits from Clement and Hathaway, Thrushes (2000), and retains the large thrushes in Turdidae. Recent biochemical studies place certain traditional thrush genera (Monticola, Pseudocossyphus, Myiophonus, Brachypteryx, and Alethe) in the Muscicapidae. Conversely, the Asian saxicoline genera Grandala and Cochoa belong here among the thrushes.

Genera

FAMILY: TURDIDAE

• Genus Turdus: true thrushes (some 65 species, one recently extinct)
• Genus Platycichla: (two species) – part of a South American group within Turdus
• Genus Nesocichla: Tristan thrush or starchy – part of a South American group within Turdus
• Genus Cichlherminia: forest thrush – genus paraphyletic with Turdus
• Genus Psophocichla: groundscraper thrush
• Genus Zoothera: Asian thrushes (some 15 species, one recently extinct)
• Genus Geokichla: (21 species)
• Genus Catharus: typical American thrushes and nightingale-thrushes (12 species)
• Genus Hylocichla: wood thrush
• Genus Ridgwayia: Aztec thrush – related to Hylocichla
• Genus Ixoreus: varied thrush – related to other New World genera
• Genus Cataponera: Sulawesi thrush
• Genus Grandala: grandala
• Genus Sialia: bluebirds (three species)
• Genus Cichlopsis: rufous-brown solitaire – related to Catharus
• Genus Entomodestes: solitaires (2 species) – related to Catharus
• Genus Myadestes: solitaires (10–11 living species, two or three recently extinct, includes formerly recognized genus Phaeornis)
• Genus Neocossyphus: rufous thrushes (four species) – related to Myadestes
• Genus Cochoa: cochoas (four species)
• Genus Chlamydochaera: fruithunter
• Genus Alethe: alethes (two species)
• Genus Pseudalethe: pseudalethes (four species)

Now usually considered a distinct family distantly related to Picathartes:

• Genus Chaetops: rock-jumpers (two species)

For other species previously in the Turdidae, see Muscicapidae and chats.

External links

• Thrush videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• High-resolution photo gallery of around 100 species.
• Story on thrush ingenuity