The spectacled thrush, bare-eyed thrush, or yellow-eyed thrush
World Birds (''Turdus nudigenis''), is a resident breeding

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 lightweigh ...

in 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 betwe ...

and in South America from Colombia and Venezuela south and east to northern Brazil. In Trinidad and Tobago, this

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 ...

is also known as big-eye grieve. The similar but

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

Ecuadorian thrush was formerly considered a subspecies of the bare-eyed thrush and named ''T. n. maculirostris''; it is now normally considered as a separate species ''T. maculirostris''. It has a narrower eyering and is only found in forest and woodland in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru.

Description

The spectacled thrush is long and weighs . It is plain olive-brown above and paler brown below. The throat is brown-streaked off-white, and the lower belly is whitish. It has a prominent yellow eye ring which gives rise to its English and scientific names. There are two poorly defined

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

, differing mainly in the darkness of the plumage. Sexes are similar, but young birds are flecked above and spotted below, and have a thinner eye ring. The song is a musical warble, slower and lower pitched than that of the cocoa thrush (''T. fumigatus''), and it also produces a cat-like call and, when uncomfortable, emits a .

Ecology

The habitat of this large thrush is open woodland, forest clearings and cultivation. The bare-eyed thrush mainly feeds on or near the ground on fruit, berries and some insects and earthworms. It is a shy species, but on Trinidad and Tobago it is much tamer, and will come to feeders and take food from tables. The nest is a lined bulky cup of twigs low in a tree. The two to three reddish-blotched deep-blue eggs are incubated by the female alone.

References

* Clement, Peter & Hathaway, Ren (2000): ''Thrushes''. Christopher Helm, London. * ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton & Eckelberry, Don R. (1991): ''A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago'' (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y. * Hilty, Steven L. (2003): ''Birds of Venezuela''. Christopher Helm, London. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2670041 spectacled thrush Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of the Guiana Shield Birds of the Lesser Antilles Birds of Grenada Birds of Martinique Birds of Saint Lucia Birds of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Birds of Brazil spectacled thrush Birds of the Amazon rainforest