Thrush sp., Mexico-City, Bosque de Chapultepec, February 26th 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Bitis]

Is it Hermit or Swainson's Thrush?
Spotted in a park, habitat was sparse forest. All pictures show the same individual.
Thank you!

 

[aeshna5]

Tail doesn't look like that of a Hermit Thrush.

 

[birdmeister]

I'm not totally sure, but guessing Hermit. The more reddish "Russet-backed" Swainson's Thrush of the Pacific should have more muted spots on the chest. The tail doesn't have a ton of contrast, but I think it could be enough for Hermit.

 

[THE_FERN]

Best guess Swainson's. I can see that Pacific form usually has more muted spotting but not always if ebird is right. Swayed by structure, apparent eye ring lack of red tail

 

[KenM]

Best guess Swainson's. I can see that Pacific form usually has more muted spotting but not always if ebird is right. Swayed by structure, apparent eye ring lack of red tail

I’ve seen both on the Pacific coast and Hermit if memory serves, seemingly always came with a rufous tail unlike Swainson’s which at best might look warm in some lights.

Cheers

 

[birdmeister]

Best guess Swainson's. I can see that Pacific form usually has more muted spotting but not always if ebird is right. Swayed by structure, apparent eye ring lack of red tail

I could be swayed to Swainson's, too. First and second images did give me a bit of Swainson's impression, I'm just less sure with the other photos.

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

I’d have said Hermit.

 

[Bitis]

Thank you very much for the help. It seems that the consensus is more on Swainson's but it's not an easy, straightforward ID. I'm adding two more pictures and I also edited the old ones a little bit, they were pretty dark.

 

[Butty]

Tail doesn't look like that of a Hermit Thrush.

👍🏻
Just no sign of rufous in the tail, so any ID that proposed it's a hermit thrush would need (at least) to cite alternative evidence. I thus think it probably isn't one, so if the only credible alternative (date + geography) is Swainson's thrush, it's a Swainson's thrush (and that's the only logic by which I've ever identified Swainson's thrush 😉).

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Might be my monitor, but in this shot, where the sun is catching the tail, it looks warm to me. The other shots are in deep shade and it doesn’t show. So we’ll.

 

[THE_FERN]

Might be my monitor, but in this shot, where the sun is catching the tail, it looks warm to me. The other shots are in deep shade and it doesn’t show. So we’ll.

View attachment 1499764

Yes I wondered about that. There's some vague evidence of a warmer hue in the other photos (for me at least), but it's not confined to the tail and doesn't seem to extend far on to the tail. I couldn't be sure if it was just lighting, therefore

 

[nartreb]

The rump looks a little warm in that shot, but the tail doesn't. No contrast between the tail and the back. No way I can make this a Hermit. Also, the eye-ring isn't particularly good for a Hermit. It's a little broad and low-contrast. Looks more like a Swainson in low light.

Given the range map, Hermit and Swainson are the only choices. Swainson for me.

 

[Bitis]

Thanks a lot, Swainson's it is

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

It might not be significant but, Google Lens doesn’t even have Swainson’s in it’s top three identification picks for this photo.

 

[Butty]

It might not be significant

I agree.

 

[AveryBartels]

This is Hermit for me. Given the deep shade on the upperparts I'm not sure the tail colouring can be really trusted. That being said, the photo of the bird face on in the original set appears to have a somewhat reddish tail. At any rate, putting that aside the facial pattern is much better for Hermit to me with the distinct eye-ring without the buffy lores (though the pale colouring bleeds out of the eye-ring both behind and in front of the eye, not too atypical for Hermit). The breast spots appear very dark/blackish as well, more so than I would expect for a Swainson's but in line with Hermit.

 

[Bitis]

It seems we won't reach an agreement, I will just leave it as unidentified then. Thanks again for all the contributions 👍