From Opus

Photo by Mybs
Cape Town, South Africa, March 2005

Turdus olivaceus

Includes Karoo Thrush; Abyssinian Thrush

[edit] Identification

Length 24 cm.
Upper-parts and upper chest dark olive grey-brown; throat white heavily streaked black; remainder of under-parts orange; vent whitish; bill and legs yellow; dark eye-ring. Subspecies smithi (Karoo Thrush) which is sometimes considered a separate species has upper-parts without olive tinge, darker less heavily streaked throat; predominantly grey-brown under-parts (orange restricted to belly); less white on vent; largely non-overlapping distributions. Subspecies abyssinicus (Abyssinian Thrush) is more similar to the nominate but differs in having orange bill and yellow eye-ring.

subspecies smithi (Karoo Thrush)
Photo by Fanie Jordaan

[edit] Similar Species

Kurrichane Thrush brighter orange eye-ring and bill; distinct black malar stripes; white centre of belly, paler upper-parts.

[edit] Distribution

Africa, south of the Sahara. Common resident in South and South East; also eastern highlands of Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

A total of 16 subspecies are recognized:

Subspecies abyssinicus (Mountian/Abyssinian Thrush)
Photo by JWN Andrewes
Fairview Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya, June 2006

• T. o. ludoviciae: Mountains of northern Somalia
• T. o. oldeani: Mountains of north-central Tanzania
• T. o. roehli: Mountains of north-eastern Tanzania (Pare and Usambara mountains)
• T. o. helleri: South-eastern Kenya (Taita Hills and Ketumbeine to Mount Kilimanjaro)
• T. o. abyssinicus: Highlands of Ethiopia, south-eastern Sudan, northern Uganda, Kenya and northern Tanzania
• T. o. baraka: Mountains of eastern Zaire and western Uganda (Ruwenzori Mountains)
• T. o. bambusicola: Highlands of Burundi, Rwanda, south-western Uganda, north-western Tanzania, eastern Zaire
• T. o. nyikae: Tanzania (Nguru and Uluguru mountains), northern Malawi and north-eastern Zambia
• T. o. milanjensis: Mountains of southern Malawi and Mozambique
• T. o. swynnertoni: Montane forests of eastern Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique
• T. o. culminans: Natal (Drakensberg to Nkandhla, Qudeni and Ngorne forests)
• T. o. transvaalensis: Northern and eastern Transvaal and western Swaziland
• T. o. smithi: Southern Namibia to south-eastern Botswana, south-western Transvaal and northern Cape Province
• T. o. pondoensis: Natal and Swaziland to Transkei and eastern Cape Province

Some authorities split the Karoo Thrush (Turdus smithi) and Abyssinan Thrush (Turdus abyssinicus) from this species (each would become a monotypic species). A recent paper proposes subspecies swynnertoni as another and more likely candidate for splitting.

[edit] Habitat

Forest, well-wooded areas, alien growth, parks and gardens.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

Its diet consists of insects, molluscs, and spiders.

[edit] Breeding

It builds a cup nest, typically up to 6 m above the ground in a tree. The 2-3 blue eggs are incubated mainly by the female for 14-15 days. The chicks fledge in another 16 days.

[edit] Vocalisation

Song short sweet phrases, without trilled quality of Kurrichane Thrush.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.4.xls/view.
2. Thread in Birdforum taxonomy forum discussing taxonomic status of subspecies swynnertoni
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links