All species › Passerines › Thrushes and allies › Rufous-bellied Thrush
Rufous-bellied Thrush | Turdus rufiventris
Roodbuiklijster | Zorzal colorado | Sabiá-laranjeira
The Rufous-bellied Thrush is a thrush of eastern and southern South America, with an olive grey-brown back and an orange-rufous belly. It is the national bird of Brazil, where it is a frequent bird of gardens and parks. In the guide area it occurs only in Bolivia, in the lowlands and dry valleys of the east and south.
Voice
The song is a long series of clear, fluty phrases, often starting before dawn and kept up for long periods. The call is a dry chok, repeated rapidly when alarmed.
Recording: Franco Vushurovich — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
23–25 cm. The head, upperparts, wings and tail are uniform olive grey-brown. The throat is whitish with dark streaks, the breast grey-brown, and the belly, flanks and undertail coverts are orange-rufous. The bill is yellowish to horn-yellow, with a narrow yellow eye-ring; the legs are grey-brown. The sexes are alike. Young birds have pale spots on the upperparts and dark spots on the rufous underparts.
Confusion species
Creamy-bellied Thrush Turdus amaurochalinus is the same size, but has a creamy white belly without rufous and dark lores. Pale-breasted Thrush Turdus leucomelas has a grey head contrasting with the brown back, and a pale belly. Chiguanco Thrush Turdus chiguanco is uniform grey-brown, without rufous, and lives higher in the Andes. Unicolored Thrush Turdus haplochrous is uniform olive-brown and lives further north in the lowlands of Beni and Santa Cruz.
Habitat
Dry and semi-humid forest, gallery forest, forest edges, scrub, orchards, gardens and parks, from the lowlands up to about 2500 m in the valleys of the eastern slope. It searches the ground and trees for invertebrates and fruit. The nest is a cup of grass and mud in a tree or shrub, often close to houses.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Bolivia in the east and south: in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Tarija, in the lowlands of the Chiquitania and the Chaco and in the dry valleys of the eastern slope of the Andes. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina and central, eastern and southern Brazil.
How and when to look
Search parks, gardens and orchards around Santa Cruz de la Sierra and in the valleys of Chuquisaca and Tarija. In the breeding season it sings from early morning from rooftops and treetops.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates semi-open farmland, gardens and urban green space well and is common over much of its range.
Scientific name
Turdus rufiventris | Vieillot, 1818
Vieillot described the species in 1818 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 Latin rufus, 'red', and venter, 'belly': 'rufous-bellied'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil.