The dark-sided thrush (''Zoothera marginata'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the thrush family

Turdidae The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World fl ...

. It is also known as the lesser brown thrush, the long-billed ground-thrush, and the dark-sided ground-thrush. The species is monotypic (lacking subspecies) and is closely related to a number of thrushes in the genus '' Zoothera'', including the long-billed thrush and the widespread

scaly thrush The scaly thrush (''Zoothera dauma'') is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. Distribution and habitat It breeds in wet coniferous taiga, mainly in the Himalayas through Malaysia. Description The sexes are similar, 27–31 cm long, wi ...

. It was described by Edward Blyth in 1847 based upon a specimen collected in Rakhine in

Burma 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 Wells explai ...

(Myanmar).

Description

The dark-sided thrush is in length and weighs around . It has a particularly long blackish bill and the plumage is a contrasting dark brown head with rufous-brown wings. The face has a white loral stripe and a white eyering with a whitish throat and chin. The call is a series of monotone thin whistles.

Distribution and habitat

The species has a discontinuous distribution in the eastern

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

, and then a population in the higher areas of Burma, northern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, Laos,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

and the extreme south of China. The species is generally non-migratory but will move down from higher altitudes in winter, and has turned up as a vagrant in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It ranges from in broadleaf forests, particularly in damp areas and around rocky streams, also in areas of reed and bamboo in these forests. The species is not common anywhere, but is potentially often overlooked due to its cryptic plumage and retiring behaviour.

References

dark-sided thrush Birds of Bhutan Birds of Nepal Birds of Northeast India Birds of Myanmar Birds of Laos Birds of Vietnam Birds of Yunnan dark-sided thrush dark-sided thrush Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Turdidae-stub