All species › Passerines › Thrushes and allies › Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush
Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush | Catharus fuscater
Grijsrugdwerglijster | Zorzalito sombrío | Sabiá-de-dorso-ardósia
The Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush is a dark, slate-grey nightingale-thrush of the undergrowth of humid montane forest in the Andes. Its white iris, orange bill and orange legs are characteristic. It lives mainly on or just above the forest floor, and its fluty song is heard mostly at dawn and dusk.
Voice
The song consists of short, clear fluty phrases with a pure, somewhat metallic quality, repeated slowly, mainly at dawn and at dusk. The call is a nasal, plaintive meeew.
Recording: Fabrice Schmitt — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
18 cm, with a straight orange bill, orange legs and a pale, whitish iris. The head and upperparts are dark slate-grey, the head darkest, almost blackish. The underparts are grey, becoming paler towards the centre of the belly, whitish to yellowish white depending on the subspecies. The sexes are alike. Young birds are browner, with pale spots on the upperparts, a dark-spotted breast and a dark bill.
Confusion species
Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush Catharus aurantiirostris has an olive-brown back and a dark eye, and lives in drier, more open scrub. Yellow-throated Nightingale-Thrush Catharus dryas has a black head, an olive-grey back and yellow, dark-spotted underparts. The male Glossy-black Thrush Turdus serranus is larger and glossy black, with a dark eye and an orange eye-ring. The North American Catharus thrushes that winter here are brown above, with a spotted breast and a dark bill.
Habitat
Undergrowth of humid, mossy montane forest and cloud forest, especially in dense, shady places, at roughly 1300 to 2600 m, locally lower. It hops over the ground and along low branches, taking insects, other invertebrates and small fruits. The nest is a cup of moss and plant material, low in a shrub or sapling.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in all three cordilleras and in the Serranía de Perijá. In Ecuador on both the western and the eastern slope of the Andes. In Peru mainly along the eastern slope of the Andes, from north to south. In Bolivia along the eastern slope of the Andes in the north and centre of the country. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Costa Rica, Panama and Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in the early morning and at dusk along trails through humid montane forest for the fluty song; the bird often hops briefly onto the trail, especially after rain.
Conservation status
Least Concern. It depends on closed montane forest with dense undergrowth and has therefore declined locally through deforestation.
Scientific name
Catharus fuscater | (de Lafresnaye, 1845)
De Lafresnaye described the species in 1845 as M[yioturdus] fuscater; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Catharus was introduced in 1850 by Bonaparte. The genus name comes from Greek katharos, 'pure, clean', referring to the plumage of the Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush (C. aurantiirostris). The species name combines Latin fuscus, 'dusky', with ater, 'black', for the dark slaty upperparts. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.