Tickell's thrush

Tickell's thrush
Tickell's thrush
Conservation status

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
Genus: Turdus
Species: T. unicolor
Binomial name
Turdus unicolor
Tickell, 1833

Tickell's thrush (Turdus unicolor) is a passerine bird in the thrush family Turdidae. It is common in open forest in the Himalayas, and migrates seasonally into peninsular India.

Males of this small thrush have uniform blue-grey upperparts, and a whitish belly and vent. Adults have yellow beak and legs while it may be darker in juveniles. There is a yellow eye-ring which is thinner and fainter than the Indian black bird which is usually bigger in size. Females and young birds have browner upperparts.

Populations move further south in India in winter. Tickell's thrushes are omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms and berries. They nest in bushes or similar. They do not form flocks but loose groups of two to five spread across tens of meters have been spotted in Nawabganj bird sanctuary, Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, India.

The name commemorates the British ornithologist Samuel Tickell who collected in India and Burma.[2]

Gallery

References

  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Turdus unicolor". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 338–339.