Mystery Bird: Red-legged Thrush, Turdus plumbeus

tags: Red-legged Thrush, Turdus plumbeus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

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.

Review all mystery birds to date.