IDENTIFICATION: A slate-gray bird with black and white streaks on the throat; and red legs, bill and eye ring. The Latin name, "plumbeus" refers to the thrush's overall gray plumage. Length: 25-28 cm.; weight: 75 g.

VOICE: The song is a prolonged medley of repeated notes, with a pause between each note, often starting well before dawn. The call notes include a harsh "wek-wek.." Audio 2 (M. Oberle).

HABITAT: Forests, shade coffee plantations, and wooded gardens.

HABITS: Walks upright on the forest floor or on shaded roadsides in search of food. The Red-legged Thrush is especially active at dawn and dusk when it often sings or calls high in a tree. But the rest of the day it is less obvious in denser vegetation, or offers just a fleeting glimpse as it flies across a road or forest clearing. Its food is mostly fruits, but a third of its diet is animal matter: insects (caterpillars, beetles, ants, crickets, wasps) and spiders, plus occasional snails, frogs, lizards and birdsÆ eggs. The thrush often flips over leaves on the forest floor to discover insects, and also feeds in vine tangles and thick vegetation higher in the canopy. It feeds on fruits either while it is perched or sometimes while briefly hovering at a fruiting tree or bush. It places its nest of leaves and grasses on a tree limb, and lays 3-4 light green or white eggs. It can be attracted to suet feeders, which it will defend against grackles and doves.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: A common forest species especially in moist woodlands. Its song is one of the characteristic sounds of mountain forests.

RANGE: Occurs in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, and the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), and an isolated race also occurs on Dominica, 300 miles southeast of Puerto Rico. This pattern of isolated populations on Caribbean islands occurs among other bird species as well.

TAXONOMY: PASSERIFORMES; TURDIDAE. Sometimes placed in the genus Mimocichla. Some taxonomists divide the Red-legged Thrush into two groups: the Eastern Red-legged Thrush (Turdus ardosiaceus) of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Dominica, and the Western Red-legged Thrush (Turdus plumbeus) in the Bahamas, Caymans and Cuba. The western form is a darker gray, with a gray, rather than a striped throat. A related species, the Grand Cayman Thrush (Turdus ravidus) has been extinct since about 1938.

References

Carlo, T. 1999. Alimentación de las aves terrestres de Puerto Rico. El Bien-te-veo 2(2):2.

Carlo, T. A., Collazo, J. A., and M. J. Groom. 2003. Avian fruit preferences across a Puerto Rican forested landscape: pattern consistency and implications for seed removal. Oecologia 134:119-131.

Clement, P. 2001. Thrushes. Princeton University Press.

Cruz, A. 1980. Avian feeding assemblages in Puerto Rico. Carib. J. Sci. 15:21-27.

Cruz, A. 1987. Avian community organization in a mahogany plantation on a Neotropical island. Carib. J. Sci. 23:286-296.

Recher, H.F. and J. T. Recher. 1966. A contribution to the knowledge of the avifauna of the Sierra de Luquillo, Puerto Rico. Carib. J. Sci. 6:151-161.

Pérez-Rivera, R.A. 1979. Habitos alimentarios del Zorzal de patas rojas (Mimocichcla plumbea ardosiacea). Science-Ciencia 6(3):133-137.

Pérez-Rivera, R.A. 1982. Algunos aspectos de la ecologia reproductiva del zorzal de patas rojas (Mimocichla plumbea ardosiacea) en Puerto Rico. Science-Ciencia 9(2):45-50.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Rolle, S. F. 1963. Life history of the Red-legged Thrush (Mimocichcla plumbea ardosiacea) in Puerto Rico. Studies on the fauna of Curacao and other Caribbean Islands 14:1-40.

Red-legged Thrush, Spanish text

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