Grey-sided Thrush

Overview

The Turdus feae is a medium-sized, warm-brown thrush that belongs to the family Turdidae. Classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, it is a migratory species currently threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation.

Identification

• Medium-sized and warm-brown in overall colouring.
• Features a white supercilium and crescent below the eye.
• Males display rufescent-olive upperparts and grey underparts that lighten on the belly.
• Females have a white throat, whiter breast centre, and dark spots or streaks on the upper breast.

Habitat

This species breeds in the mountains of north-east China and migrates to subtropical or tropical moist montane forest in India and Indochina. It has also recently been recorded in parts of Daman and Makwanpur in Nepal, and as a vagrant in north-eastern Bangladesh.

Diet

The bird forages on the ground, or less commonly in trees, for insects and berries, often in company with the eyebrowed thrush. It is also thought to feed on nectar from the flowers of the shingle tree (Acrocarpus fraxinifolius).

Did you know?

This species is often seen foraging in the company of the Turdus obscurus.