The Chinese blackbird (''Turdus mandarinus'') is a member 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 was formerly considered a subspecies of the related

common blackbird The common blackbird (''Turdus merula'') is a species of true thrush. It is also called the Eurasian blackbird (especially in North America, to distinguish it from the unrelated New World blackbirds), or simply the blackbird where this does not ...

(''T. merula'').

Subspecies

*The Chinese blackbird (''T. m. mandarinus'') breeds throughout much of southern, central and eastern China.MacKinnon, J., & Phillipps, K. (2000). ''A Field Guide to the Birds of China.'' Oxford University Press. Oxford. It is a partial migrant to Hong Kong and south to

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

and Vietnam. The male is sooty black, and the female is similar but browner, and paler on the underparts. p228 It is a large subspecies.Collar, N. J. (2005). Common Blackbird (''Turdus merula''). p. 645 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Christie, D. A. eds. (2005) ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

.'' Vol. 10. Cuckoo-shrikes to Thrushes. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. *Sowerby's blackbird (''T. m. sowerbyi''), named for James Sowerby, British naturalist and illustrator, breeds from eastern Sichuan to Guizhou. It is partially migratory, with some individuals spending the winter in southern China and northern Indochina. It resembles ''mandarinus'', but is smaller and darker below.

References

Chinese blackbird The Chinese blackbird (''Turdus mandarinus'') is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the related common blackbird (''T. merula''). Subspecies *The Chinese blackbird (''T. m. mandarinus'') breeds ...

Birds of China

{{Turdidae-stub