The black-throated thrush (''Turdus atrogularis'') is a passerine bird in the

thrush ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

family. It is sometimes regarded as one

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of a polytypic species, "dark-throated thrush",

red-throated thrush The red-throated thrush (''Turdus ruficollis'') is a passerine bird in the thrush family. It is sometimes regarded as one subspecies of a polytypic species, "dark-throated thrush", black-throated thrush then being the other subspecies. More r ...

then being the other subspecies. More recent treatments regard the two as separate species. The black-throated thrush is a migratory Eastern

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

species. Its range overlaps with the more easterly-breeding red-throated thrush.

Description

This is a large and distinctive thrush. The male has black from the chin to the breast with a greyish black tail. The upperparts are grey and the underparts are whitish with orange-red underwing coverts. Females and immatures are similar but the black on the throat and breast is replaced with dusky streaking.

Habitat

Black-throated thrushes breed along the edges of clearings in coniferous or mixed deciduous forest, often in the undergrowth of Siberian Pine '' Pinus sibirica'' or mixed spruce fir forest, especially along watercourses or in swampy areas.

Ecology

Breeds solitarily or in loose aggregations of pairs in late May through to late July. The nest is made of grasses and thin twigs bound with earth and lined with fine grasses, moss or lichens. The nest is usually placed within 1.5 to 2m of the ground, sometimes on the ground. Otherwise the behaviour is similar to that of the fieldfare ''T. pilaris''. In winter often found in large flocks with other thrushes such as

Tickell's thrush 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, Nepal and rarely to Bangladesh. The name commemorates the B ...

''T. unicolor'', eye-browed thrush ''T. obscurus'' and

mistle thrush The mistle thrush (''Turdus viscivorus'') is a bird common to much of Europe, temperate Asia and North Africa. It is a year-round resident in a large part of its range, but northern and eastern populations migrate south for the winter, often ...

''T. viscivorus'', on migration often with

dusky thrush The dusky thrush (''Turdus eunomus'') is a member of the thrush family which breeds eastwards from central Siberia to Kamchatka wintering to Japan, South China and Myanmar. It is closely related to the more southerly breeding Naumann's thrush ...

. Roosts in dense evergreen vegetation. Feeds on the ground on invertebrates and also feeds on various berries, cherries and some seeds.

Distribution

The breeding range of the black-throated thrush extends from the extreme east of Europe to Western Siberia and north-west Mongolia. The wintering range extends from the Middle East, although uncommon in the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

to eastern

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. As a vagrant it has occurred in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Thailand, and Taiwan as well as to most of Europe west of its normal range.

Taxonomy

The scientific name comes from Latin. ''Turdus'' is "thrush" and the specific ''atrogularis'' is derived from ''ater'', "black", and ''gula'', "throat". Formerly considered conspecific with the

''T. ruficollis'' but now considered a separate species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q80780 black-throated thrush Birds of Russia black-throated thrush black-throated thrush