Bicknell's thrush
| Bicknell's thrush | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Turdidae |
| Genus: | Catharus |
| Species: | C. bicknelli |
| Binomial name | |
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Catharus bicknelli (Ridgway, 1882) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Catharus minimus bicknelli |
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Catharus minimus bicknelli
The Bicknell's thrush (Catharus bicknelli) is a medium-sized thrush, at 17.5 cm (6.9 in) and 28 g (0.99 oz). It was named after Eugene Bicknell, an American amateur ornithologist, who discovered the species on Slide Mountain in the Catskills in the late 19th century.
Bicknell's thrush is just slightly smaller than the other northern migratory Catharus thrushes, with an average length of approximately 17 cm (6.7 in) and a mean weight of 27.8 g (0.98 oz), with a range from 21 to 36.8 g (0.74 to 1.30 oz). The sexes are roughly the same size, although males average slightly larger in wing length. Adults are olive-brown on the upperparts, slightly redder on the tail. The underparts are white with gray on the flanks; the breast is greyish brown with dark spots. They have pink legs, a faint grey eye ring, and gray cheeks. They average slightly smaller than the very similar gray-cheeked thrush but are all but indistinguishable in outward appearance. Together, gray-cheeked and Bicknell's thrush form a cryptic species pair, and were indeed formerly considered conspecific. The song is a jumbled series of flute-like tones ending on a higher note.
Their breeding habitat is the coniferous forests in southeastern Quebec to Nova Scotia and the sky islands of northern New England and New York state. It is the rarest and most secretive of the breeding thrushes in North America and it is the only bird species whose breeding range is entirely restricted to the northeastern part of the continent. They usually breed at higher elevations, normally nesting above 915 m (3,002 ft).
These birds migrate to the West Indies and the Greater Antilles, with an estimated 90% of the individuals wintering on Hispaniola. Bicknell's and gray-cheeked thrush, along with the veery, make up a close-knit group of migrant species.
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Wikipedia