All species › Passerines › Thrushes and allies › Creamy-bellied Thrush
Creamy-bellied Thrush | Turdus amaurochalinus
Crèmebuiklijster | Zorzal chalchalero | Sabiá-poca
The Creamy-bellied Thrush is a greyish brown thrush of dry and semi-humid woodland in southern South America, with a creamy white belly and blackish lores. In the guide area it breeds in Bolivia; birds from the south move north in the austral winter to the Amazonian lowlands of Bolivia and Peru. In the breeding season the male has a bright yellow bill.
Voice
The song is a slow, rather monotonous series of short, fluty phrases, simpler than in most other thrushes. The call is a dry pok and a soft chuk.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
22–23 cm. The upperparts are plain greyish brown to olive-brown. The throat is white with dark streaks, the breast pale greyish brown and the belly creamy white. The lores are blackish, giving the face a dark patch in front of the eye. In the breeding season the male has a bright yellow bill; at other times, and in the female, the bill is dark horn with a yellowish base. The legs are greyish brown. Young birds have pale spots on the upperparts and dark spots on the breast.
Confusion species
Black-billed Thrush Turdus ignobilis lacks dark lores and has a dark bill and a browner breast. Pale-breasted Thrush Turdus leucomelas has a grey head contrasting with the brown back, and rufous underwings. Hauxwell's Thrush Turdus hauxwelli is warmer rufous-brown, with buff flanks. The female Andean Slaty Thrush Turdus nigriceps is more olive-brown, with a more heavily streaked throat and no dark lores.
Habitat
Dry and semi-humid woodland, Chaco woodland, gallery forest, forest edges, scrub with trees, parks and gardens, from the lowlands up to about 2500 m in the Andean valleys of Bolivia; in the austral winter also in forest edges and open woodland in the Amazonian lowlands. It searches the ground for insects and other invertebrates, and also eats fruit. The nest is a cup in a tree or shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Bolivia widespread in the lowlands and dry Andean valleys, as a breeding bird mainly in the south and east; in the north mainly as a winter visitor. In Peru as an austral winter visitor in the Amazonian lowlands and the foothills of the eastern slope. In Ecuador a rare winter visitor in the east. In Colombia only a few records in the far south-east. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and southern and central Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Look in Bolivia in parks and dry woodland around Santa Cruz and in the dry Andean valleys. From April to September also along forest edges in the lowlands of south-eastern Peru.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common, and tolerates semi-open landscapes, plantations and urban green space.
Scientific name
Turdus amaurochalinus | Cabanis, 1851
Cabanis described the species in 1851 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Turdus was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. The genus name comes from Latin turdus, 'thrush'. The species name comes from Greek amauros, 'dark', and khalinos, 'bridle', referring to the dark lores between bill and eye. The specimen the first description was based on came from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.