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Pale-vented Thrush | Turdus obsoletus
Bleekbuiklijster | Mirlo ventripálido
The Pale-vented Thrush is a warm brown thrush of humid foothill forest in Costa Rica and Panama, recognised by the sharply defined white lower belly and undertail. It lives mainly in the canopy and comes to fruiting trees at forest edges. In the guide area it reaches the northern limit of a range that extends to Ecuador.
Voice
The song is a rich, varied series of whistled phrases, each repeated a few times, fuller and less monotonous than that of Mountain Thrush. Calls include a low wuk and a nasal, buzzy dzee.
Recording: José María Loaiza B. — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
22–24 cm. Upperparts uniform warm brown. Throat slightly paler with fine, indistinct dark streaks; breast and flanks brown, a little paler than the back. Lower belly and undertail coverts clean white, sharply demarcated from the brown breast. Bill dark, legs greyish brown, no coloured eye-ring. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Clay-colored Thrush Turdus grayi is paler and buffy brown, lacks the clean white lower belly and has a yellowish bill; it lives mainly in open country and gardens. White-throated Thrush Turdus assimilis has a white crescent below the streaked throat and a yellow eye-ring. Mountain Thrush Turdus plebejus is greyer olive-brown, lacks the white lower belly and lives higher in the mountains.
Habitat
Canopy and edges of humid evergreen foothill and lower montane forest, mostly between 600 and 1500 m; also mature secondary forest and clearings with scattered trees. Lower outside the breeding season. It eats mainly fruit and also searches leaf litter for invertebrates.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and both slopes of Panama, mainly in the foothills. Outside the guide area in western Colombia and western Ecuador.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Costa Rica best looked for along forest edges in the Caribbean foothills, such as at Braulio Carrillo; in Panama at Cerro Azul and El Valle de Antón. Usually high in fruiting trees and often wary.
Conservation status
Not threatened (LC). Fairly common in suitable forest. Declines where foothill forest is cleared.
Scientific name
Turdus obsoletus | Lawrence, 1862
Lawrence described the species in 1862 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Turdus was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Turdus is the ordinary Latin word for 'thrush'. obsoletus is Latin for 'indistinct, plain', after the rather unmarked brown plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Caribbean side of the Isthmus of Panama, along the Panama Railroad.