tags: Red-legged Thrush, Turdus plumbeus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Red-legged Thrush, Turdus plumbeus, photographed near Ceiba, Puerto Rico [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Dennis Paulson, 11 March 2009 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is a pretty bird, and one quickly identifiable to genus for anyone who knows, say, American Robin or Song Thrush. The Turdus thrushes are large, alert-looking birds with long and elegant tarsi. The bright soft parts and distinctive plumage -- including extensive white tail tips, lavish white wing edgings, and the clearly streaked throat -- bring us easily to Red-legged Thrush.
That species is endemic to a few islands in the Caribbean, where it displays marked geographic variation. Birds of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico look like the bird in the image, while those in western Cuba and the Caymans have a dark throat and brownish belly; the underparts are dull gray in the Bahamas.
Interestingly enough, this species was formally described by Linnaeus eight years before he named the American Robin, letting Turdus plumbeus share with Eastern Bluebird chronological pride of place among the New World thrushes.
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Comments
Red-legged thrush. The obvious field marks are the red legs and red bill. And according to Raffaele's Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, it "flits away .. flashing the white tips of its outer tail feathers."
Posted by: Russell | March 25, 2009 12:13 PM
Thanks for this. Got me browsing my exotic birding books. yes, Red-legged Thrush as per Raffaele et al Birds of the West Indies
Posted by: Kathy H | March 25, 2009 2:59 PM
I'll take their word for it. But ... HIS LEGS ARE ON CROOKED!!
Posted by: The Ridger | March 25, 2009 5:15 PM