• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Varied Thrush - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Doug Greenberg
Oakland, California, USA, 9 January 2007
Ixoreus naevius

Zoothera naevia

Identification

Female
Photo © by Lanesra
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

21·5–24 cm (8½-9½ in)

  • Dark grey upperparts
  • Orange supercilium
  • Dark grey stripe through the eye
  • Two orange wing bars
  • Wide band across rusty breast
    • Black in male
    • Gray in female
  • White under tail
  • Brown legs and feet

Immature

  • Breastband imperfect or speckled
  • Rusty wash

Similar Species

The morph and behavior are very similar to the closely related American Robin, but the coloration is distinctive.

Distribution

Western North America from Alaska to northern California.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 3 subspecies[1]:

  • I. n. naevius:
  • South East Alaska to coastal north-western California; winters to southern California
  • I. n. meruloides:
  • North Alaska and north-western Canada to north-western US; winters to west-central US
  • I. n. carlottae:
  • Haida Gwaii (British Columbia, Canada)

Habitat

Mature forests with a closed canopy, prefers wet coniferous or mixed forests for breeding. Winters in parks, gardens as well as forests.

Behaviour

Diet

They mainly feed on or near the ground; their diet consists mostly of invertebrates in the spring and summer, changing to fruit, berries and mast in the autumn and winter.

Breeding

The nest is placed in a tree. The clutch contains 2-5 eggs. There may be a second brood.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved May 2019)

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

Back
Top