The rufous-bellied thrush (''Turdus rufiventris'') is a
songbird 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 (
Turdidae). It occurs in most of east and southeast
Brazil from
Maranhão south to
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...
states,
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
,
Paraguay,
Uruguay and central regions of
Argentina.
It is one of the most common birds across much of southeastern Brazil, and is known there under the name ''sabiá-laranjeira'' (). It was famously referred to in the well-known first strophe of the
Brazilian nationalist poem
Canção do exílio
"Canção do exílio" (, ''Exile song'') is a poem written by the Brazilian Romantic author Gonçalves Dias in 1843, when he was in Portugal studying Law at the University of Coimbra. The poem is a famous example of the first phase of Brazilian Ro ...
. The rufous-bellied thrush has been the state bird of
São Paulo since 1966, and the national bird of Brazil since 2002. It is highly regarded in Brazil, where its song is often heard in the afternoons, but specially during the nights between August and November, where thousands of them sing until the sunrise, and is often seen as "the spirit of the Brazilian commoner".
Description
This
species is named after its distinctive reddish-orange underparts. Rufous-bellied thrushes can reach a length of 25 cm and weigh up to 68 g (male) or 78 g (female), though weights of about 59 g for males and 64 g for females are more usual. Contrary to what one might expect from the rather marked weight difference, the females are not larger, only plumper; their
tarsus is actually a bit shorter than that of males on average.
Habits
Found in forests and urban wooded areas, it is an
omnivorous bird. Its food consists mainly of fruits and
arthropods, and it can sometimes be seen attending
mixed-species feeding flocks and moving through the bushes with many other birds. It has been observed to squabble with a
common marmoset (''Callithrix jacchus'') in the undergrowth over food flushed by an
army ant column, but this was during the
dry season when fruits are scarce.
Nesting
It builds an open-cup
nest, sometimes right on the forest floor, sometimes more than 20 meters high in a tree, but usually 4–5 meters above ground. In the
yungas of NW Argentina, nesting occurred in the wet season from October to March, with most birds breeding in November–December. The three, sometimes two eggs measure about 27-28 by 20 mm, and weigh c.5.7-5.9 grams each. They are incubated for about 12–13 days, and young take about that long again until they
fledge
Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight.
This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnerable c ...
. Incubation is solely by the female, which spends considerable time on the nest. The nestlings are attended by both parents however; as the young near fledging, they are fed every 5–7 minutes or so on average.
Predation may be a major cause of brood failure; in the southern
Andean yungas it was noted to be especially high during the nestling time and far less significant during incubation.
Status
This common and wide-ranging species is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
[BLI (2008)]
Gallery
Image:Ninho de sabiá SP.JPG, Bird's nest in a mailbox, located in a residence of the Northern Zone of São Paulo, Brazil; note the use of plastic bag
A plastic bag, poly bag, or pouch is a type of container made of thin, flexible, plastic film, nonwoven fabric, or plastic textile. Plastic bags are used for containing and transporting goods such as foods, produce, powders, ice, magazines, c ...
s, twigs, and feathers in its construction
File:Turdus rufiventris-standing.jpg, Note rufous belly. Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve
Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve, ''Reserva Ecológica de Buenos Aires'', also known as Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve, ''Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur'', is a tract of low land on the Río de la Plata riverbank located on the east side of ...
, Argentina
Footnotes
References
* Auer, Sonya K.; Bassar, Ronald D.; Fontaine, Joseph J. & Martin, Thomas E. (2007): Breeding biology of passerines in a subtropical montane forest in Northwestern Argentina. ''
The Condor'' 109(2): 321-333
nglish with Spanish abstract DOI:10.1650/0010-5422(2007)109 21:BBOPIA.0.CO;2PDF fulltext* de Lyra-Neves, Rachel M.; Oliveira, Maria A.B.; Telino-Júnior,Wallace R. & dos Santos, Ednilza M. (2007): Comportamentos interespecíficos entre ''Callithrix jacchus'' (Linnaeus) (Primates, Callitrichidae) e algumas aves de Mata Atlântica, Pernambuco, Brasil
nterspecific behaviour between ''Callithrix jacchus'' (Linnaeus) (Callitrichidae, Primates) and some birds of the Atlantic forest, Pernanbuco State, Brazil ''Revista Brasileira de Zoologia'' 24(3): 709–716
ortuguese with English abstract PDF fulltext
* Machado, C.G. (1999): A composição dos bandos mistos de aves na Mata Atlântica da Serra de Paranapiacaba, no sudeste brasileiro
ixed flocks of birds in Atlantic Rain Forest in Serra de Paranapiacaba, southeastern Brazil ''Revista Brasileira de Biologia'' 59(1): 75-85
ortuguese with English abstract PDF fulltext*
Olson, Storrs L. & Alvarenga, Herculano M. F. (2006): An extraordinary feeding assemblage of birds at a termite swarm in the Serra da Mantiqueira, São Paulo, Brazil. ''Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia'' 14(3): 297-299
nglish with Portuguese abstractbr>
PDF fulltext*
Sick, Helmut; Haffer, Jürgen; Alvarenga, Herculano F.; Pacheco, José Fernando & Barruel, Paul (1997): ''Ornitologia Brasileira''
Brazilian Ornithology" Editora Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro
n Portuguese
External links
Rufous-bellied Thrush videoson the Internet Bird Collection
VIREO
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q609283
Rufous-bellied Thrush
Birds of Argentina
Birds of Bolivia
Birds of Brazil
Birds of Paraguay
Birds of the Caatinga
Birds of the Cerrado
Birds of the Pantanal
Birds of Uruguay
Rufous-bellied Thrush
Rufous-bellied Thrush
Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot