''Platycichla'' is a small disputed genus of tropical

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

thrushes 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 flyca ...

. It contains just two species: * Pale-eyed thrush, ''Platycichla (Turdus) leucops'' * Yellow-legged thrush, ''Platycichla (Turdus) flavipes'' These are medium-sized (20–23 cm long)

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 ...

s of humid mountain forests. Their nests are a typical thrush's lined cup of twigs. In both species the male is mainly dark grey or black with yellow legs and bill, and the female essentially warm brown above and paler below. The ''Platycichla'' thrushes mainly feed in trees and bushes on

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

and some

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s. They are shy species, and the females in particular is difficult to see, since she does not sing. The song of the male consists of melodic musical phrases. The main argument for separating this

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

from ''

Turdus True thrushes are medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus ''Turdus'' of the wider thrush family, Turdidae. The genus name ''Turdus'' is Latin for "thrush". The term "thrush" is used for many other birds of the family T ...

'' is the smaller size of the former compared to most members of the latter. Similarities in plumage, vocalization, behavior, and

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

lead to the

South American Classification Committee The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

eliminating ''Platycichla'' (instead including the two species in ''Turdus'') following a proposal in 2006.

References

* ''Thrushes'' by Clement and Hathaway, * *

External links

Evaluation leading to Platycichla being eliminated (South American Classification Committee)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q907260 Bird genera Taxa named by Spencer Fullerton Baird