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 (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

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

thrush Thrush may refer to: Birds * Thrush (bird), any of the birds in the family Turdidae ** List of thrush species * Antthrushes, the Formicariidae family of birds * Dohrn's warbler, or Dohrn's thrush-babbler, a species ''Sylvia dohrni'' in the famil ...

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 Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

, 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 Christopher Alexander Roger Helm (born Dundee, 1 February 1937 – 20 January 2007) was a Scottish book publisher, notably of ornithology related titles, including the ''Helm Identification Guides''. Born in Dundee, he was raised in Forfar, wh ...

, 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''.

, 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