La Selle Thrush

Overview

The La Selle thrush (Turdus swalesi) is a Vulnerable species of bird in the family Turdidae, endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. It is found in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where it is considered locally common in the latter but rare and local in the former.

Identification

• A medium-sized thrush measuring 26 to 27 cm in length and weighing between 88 and 110 g, with sexually similar plumage.
• The nominate subspecies features a mostly slate-black head with a bright yellow to orange eye-ring, a few white streaks on the ear coverts and throat, and slate-black upperparts.
• The underside displays rusty red upper flanks, rich rufous lower breast and sides, and a white belly and undertail coverts.
• It possesses a yellow to orange bill with a dark base, a dark iris, and dark grey to black legs and feet.

Habitat

This species inhabits the understory of wet montane broadleaf evergreen forest and, at higher elevations, pine forest, typically ranging between 1,300 and 2,100 m in elevation. Its distribution is disjunct, with the nominate subspecies occurring in the Chaîne de la Selle in southeastern Haiti and the Baoruco Mountain Range in southwestern Dominican Republic, while the T. s. dodae subspecies is restricted to the Sierra de Neiba and Cordillera Central in the Dominican Republic.

Diet

The La Selle thrush feeds on fruit, insects, and other invertebrates such as earthworms. It forages primarily on the ground and occasionally in cultivated gardens located near the edge of the forest.

Did you know?

The species' English name is derived from the Chaîne de la Selle, the location where the type specimen was collected, although the scientific specific epithet swalesi was chosen to commemorate Bradshaw Hall Swales, an honorary curator at the National Museum of Natural History.