Austral Thrush - BirdForum Opus

Adult male. Magellan subspecies
Photo © by Luisrock62
Bariloche, Argentina, November 2004

Turdus falcklandii

Identification

23–26.5 cm (9")
Adult

Grey-brown upperparts
Blackish head
Orange-buff underparts
White throat with blackish streaks
Yellow eye-ring
Yellow bill and legs

Juvenile is spotted below and on its back

Distribution

Juvenile, Magellan subspecies
Photo © by Dave Clark
Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, January 2012

Central and southern Chile, southern Argentina and the Falkland Islands.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 2 subspecies^{[1][3][4][5][6]}:

T. f. magellanicus: Magellan Thrush, smaller, grayer above, darker head, paler underparts

Southern Chile and southern Argentina to Tierra del Fuego; Juan Fernández Island

T. f. falcklandii: Falkland Thrush, larger and and darker with warmer olive-brown upperparts, paler head, more richly colored underparts and less distinct throat pattern

Falkland Islands

Clements^[2] also recognizes T. f. pembertoni of South-central Argentina (Río Negro and Neuquén) but most authorities consider it indistinguishable from magellanicus.

Habitat

Immature, Falkland (nominate) subspecies
Photo © by Joseph Morlan
Gypsy Cove, Falkland Islands, 3 March 2018

Forest, farmland, gardens.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet consists of worms, snails and various insects, also fruit

References

Clement, P. & Hathway, R. (2000) Thrushes. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton.
Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Collar, N. (2018). Austral Thrush (Turdus falcklandii). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/58320 on 24 May 2018).
Dickinson, EC, ed. 2014. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 4th ed. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0956861122
Fjeldsa, J. and Krabbe, N. (1990) Birds of the High Andes. Zoological Mus. University of Copenhagen & Svendborg.
Gill, F & D Donsker (Eds). 2018. IOC World Bird List (v8.1). doi : 10.14344/IOC.ML.8.1. Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
Arthur Grosset's Birds

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Austral Thrush. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 11 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Austral_Thrush

External Links

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