Comoros thrush

The Comoros thrush (Turdus bewsheri) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in the Comoros Islands in the south western Indian Ocean.

Comoros thrush
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
Genus: Turdus
Species:
T. bewsheri
Binomial name
Turdus bewsheri
Newton, 1877[2]

Description

The Comoros thrush is a brown bird with olive tinged upperparts, slightly more rufous on the tail and wings. The underparts are whitish except for brown flanks and brown scaling on the breast and belly, central belly and undertail coverts are white. The females are browner than the males but otherwise similar, juveniles are more rufous. The length is 24 cm.[3]

Voice

The song is a typically thrush-like series of melodious, rich notes which varies between islands. ALarm call is a sharp "twit" and there is a soft contact call.[3]

Distribution and subspecies

There are three recognised subspecies, each endemic to a single island. They are:[4]

  • Turdis bewsheri comorensis Milne-Edwards & Oustalet, 1885: Grand Comoro.
  • Turdis bewsheri moheliensis Benson, 1960: Mohéli.
  • Turdis bewsheri bewsheri E. Newton, 1877: Anjouan.

Habitat

Comoro thrush occurs in evergreen primary forest and forest edge from sea level to 700m, except for the subspecies T.B. comorensis which occurs on Mount Karthala[4] above this altitude as no forests exist lower than this.[3]

Habits

The Comoro thrush normally forages low down in the understorey or on the ground, looking fore spiders, grasshoppers, bugs, molluscs and some fruit and seeds. Will go higher into the canopy to feed on fruit.[5] Sometimes joins mixed species flocks. It breeds in mid-August to October when a cup shaped nest is built from plant fibres and roots, covered in moss and lined with fine grasses. It is placed up to 3m from the ground on a tree stump, among epiphytes or along a horizontal branch. the normal clutch is 2 eggs.[3]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Turdus bewsheri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. "Turdus bewsheri E. Newton, 1877". Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (https://www.itis.gov). Retrieved 2016-11-14.
  3. Peter Clement; Ren Hathaway (2000). Thrushes. Christopher Helm. pp. 338–339. ISBN 0-7136-3940-7.
  4. "Comoros Thrush (Turdis bewsheri)". HBW Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
  5. Ian Sinclair; Olivier Langrand (1998). Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands. Struik. p. 132. ISBN 1 86872 035 7.
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