The scaly-breasted thrasher (''Allenia fusca'') 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 family Mimidae. It is found throughout much of the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...

of the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The scaly-breasted thrasher was originally placed in genus ''Margarops'' with the

pearly-eyed thrasher The pearly-eyed thrasher (''Margarops fuscatus'') is a bird in the thrasher family Mimidae. It is found on many Caribbean islands, from the Bahamas in the north to the Grenadines in the south, with an isolated subspecies on Bonaire. Descriptio ...

(''M. fuscatus'') but is now in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

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 ...

''Allenia''. It has five subspecies: *''A. f. hypenema'' Buden (1993) *''A. f. vincenti'' Kratter & Garrido (1996) *''A. f. atlantica'' Buden (1993) *''A. f. schwartzi'' Buden (1993) *''A. f. fusca'' Müller (1776)

Description

The scaly-breasted thrasher is approximately long and weighs with an average weight of . With its rather short and slightly decurved bill, this thrasher resembles a thrush. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark gray-brown head and upperparts with a reddish tinge on the rump. Their tail is a darker brownish black and its outer feathers have white tips. The folded wing shows a single white bar. Their chin and throat are whitish with brown streaks. The underparts are whitish and the chest and flanks have bold gray-brown markings that give the eponymous scaly appearance.Cody, M. L. (2020). Scaly-breasted Thrasher (''Allenia fusca''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.scbthr.01 retrieved July 28, 2021 The other subspecies differ mostly in size and the intensity of their upperparts' color. ''A. f. hypenema'' is the largest and is paler than the nominate. ''A. f. schwartzi'' is mid-sized and has more white on its tail. ''A. f. vincenti'' is the smallest and is darker overall than the nominate. ''A. f. atlantica'' compared to the nominate is more reddish brown above and has less white in the tail.

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of scaly-breasted thrasher are found thus: *''A. f. hypenema'', northern Lesser Antilles from Saint Martin south through

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Şaba (Romanian for Shabo), a town of the Odesa Oblast, Ukraine * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Saba (river), ...

Saint Barthélemy Saint Barthélemy (french: Saint-Barthélemy, ), officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. It is often abbreviated to St. Barth in French, and St. Barts in English ...

, Antigua,

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...

, and Montserrat to Guadeloupe; possibly extinct on Sint Eustatius and

Barbuda Barbuda (), is an island located in the eastern Caribbean forming part of the sovereign state of Antigua and Barbuda. It is located north of the island of Antigua and is part of the Leeward Islands of the West Indies. The island is a popula ...

*''A. f. vincenti'', Saint Vincent, and vagrant to the Grenadines *''A. f. atlantica'',

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

(but is probably extinct) *''A. f. schwartzi'', Saint Lucia *''A. f. fusca'', Dominica, Grenada, and

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

The scaly-breasted thrasher primarily inhabits forest and semi-open woodland and is also found around human settlements.

Behavior

Feeding

The scaly-breasted thrasher forages in trees; on different islands it hunts at different levels from low down to high in the canopy. It is omnivorous; its diet includes

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s, fruits, and berries. It appears to eat a larger percentage of vegetable foods than other thrashers.

Breeding

The scaly-breasted thrasher breeds in May and June. It builds a cup nest in a bush or tree. The clutch size is two or three.

Vocalization

The scaly-breasted thrasher's song is a " ries of varied notes and phrases" similar to that of ''Mimus''

mockingbird Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the family Mimidae. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. ...

s but softer and slower.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the scaly-breasted thrasher as being of Least Concern. It is fairly common to common through most of its range though rare on Grenada.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2226247 scaly-breasted thrasher Birds of the Lesser Antilles Birds of Montserrat Endemic birds of the Caribbean Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the West Indies scaly-breasted thrasher scaly-breasted thrasher Taxonomy articles created by Polbot