The Izu thrush or Izu Islands thrush (''Turdus celaenops'') is a bird of 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 native to

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 n ...

Behavior

Feeding

Izu thrushes eat small animals, such as earthworms and insects, and fruits, like cherries or mullberries.

Breeding

The Izu Thrush's breeding season is March to July. During the first half of this season, the male will sing at dawn, but will, during the second half, sing throughout the day. One source described their song as 'kyurrr, chotts' and their call as 'tweet' or 'chat, chat, chat". They build their nests in trees about half a metre from the ground. They use soil to bind the materials, such as grass and moss, together. While the clutch can have as many as five or as few as two eggs, most clutches are of three to four eggs. The eggs are blue with brown spots and are roughly 3cm long. Both parents look after the chicks.

Predation of nests

Since the introduction of weasels, the fledgling rate has significantly decreased.

Description

The Izu thrush is about 23cm long. Their back and tails are black and they have a yellow eye-ring and bill, brown wings, and a rust-red chest. The males have darker plumage than that of the females.

Distribution

The Izu thrush is an endemic bird of

. They are mostly found on the Izu Islands that are between Oshima and

Aogashima is a volcanic island to the south of Japan in northernmost Micronesia. It is the southernmost and most isolated inhabited island of the Izus, which are politically and administratively part of Japan but geographically not part of the Japanese ...

. Some individuals are found on the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yon ...

of Yaku-shima and Tokara. During the winter, a few birds migrate to

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island s ...

and Shikoku.

Conservation

The izu thrush is described as a vulnerable species by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolo ...

. There are between 2500 and 9999 thousand mature individuals and the population is decreasing, though it is not severely fragmented. The amount and/or quality of their habitat is decreasing. They are threatened by volcanoes, roads, railroads, wood plantations, tourism areas, and both native and invasive species and diseases.

References

External links

Izu Thrush
entry at Avibase Birds described in 1887 Endemic birds of Japan Birds of the Ryukyu Islands Izu Islands Turdus {{Turdidae-stub