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Tristan thrush
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Tristan thrush
The Tristan thrush (Turdus eremita), also known as the starchy, is a species of bird in the thrush family that is endemic to the British overseas territories of the isolated Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean.
The isolation of its habitat forced the Tristan thrush to adapt to its current niche: the species is known to scavenge, and also predate on eggs and even other birds of its size class, though it also feeds on more typical fare such as invertebrates and plant matter.
The bird was described by John Gould as being similar in size and appearance to the song thrush, and by Henry Moseley as like a very dark-coloured song thrush. However, it also has the short rounded wings and reduced keel indicative of a reduced need for flight, typical of bird species adapted to life on small islands.
This thrush typically has a length of about 22 cm (8.7 in). The nominate subspecies from Tristan differs from that from Nightingale Island, with the Tristan birds being warm dark brown on the upperparts rather than dull sooty-brown, rufous rather than dark fuscous on the sides of the head, and rufous-brown, rather than brownish-black, on the underparts. Birds from Inaccessible Island appear to be intermediate, with the sides of the head of a specimen from there speckled both rufous and fuscous.
The thrush is found on Tristan, Inaccessible, Nightingale, Middle and Stoltenhoff Islands in the Tristan group. It uses all the natural habitats available on the islands, including rocky shorelines, tussock grassland, fern-dominated shrubland and wet heathland.
The thrush is thought to have evolved from an ancestor in the genus Turdus from South America, and resembles an immature austral thrush, but its adaptations to life on a small island group, including an unusual brush-tipped tongue modified for extracting the contents of eggs, have been used as reasons to warrant its separation into the monotypic genus Nesocichla. However, molecular analysis has indicated that not only is it part of a South American clade of Turdus, but also that it falls squarely within that genus.
There are three subspecies, the ranges of which correspond to the three main islands in the group:
The thrush breeds from September to February. Its cup-shaped nest is woven from strands of grasses and other vegetation, and sited on or close to the ground. It lays a clutch of two or three, occasionally four, eggs. The fledging period is about 20 days.
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Tristan thrush
The Tristan thrush (Turdus eremita), also known as the starchy, is a species of bird in the thrush family that is endemic to the British overseas territories of the isolated Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean.
The isolation of its habitat forced the Tristan thrush to adapt to its current niche: the species is known to scavenge, and also predate on eggs and even other birds of its size class, though it also feeds on more typical fare such as invertebrates and plant matter.
The bird was described by John Gould as being similar in size and appearance to the song thrush, and by Henry Moseley as like a very dark-coloured song thrush. However, it also has the short rounded wings and reduced keel indicative of a reduced need for flight, typical of bird species adapted to life on small islands.
This thrush typically has a length of about 22 cm (8.7 in). The nominate subspecies from Tristan differs from that from Nightingale Island, with the Tristan birds being warm dark brown on the upperparts rather than dull sooty-brown, rufous rather than dark fuscous on the sides of the head, and rufous-brown, rather than brownish-black, on the underparts. Birds from Inaccessible Island appear to be intermediate, with the sides of the head of a specimen from there speckled both rufous and fuscous.
The thrush is found on Tristan, Inaccessible, Nightingale, Middle and Stoltenhoff Islands in the Tristan group. It uses all the natural habitats available on the islands, including rocky shorelines, tussock grassland, fern-dominated shrubland and wet heathland.
The thrush is thought to have evolved from an ancestor in the genus Turdus from South America, and resembles an immature austral thrush, but its adaptations to life on a small island group, including an unusual brush-tipped tongue modified for extracting the contents of eggs, have been used as reasons to warrant its separation into the monotypic genus Nesocichla. However, molecular analysis has indicated that not only is it part of a South American clade of Turdus, but also that it falls squarely within that genus.
There are three subspecies, the ranges of which correspond to the three main islands in the group:
The thrush breeds from September to February. Its cup-shaped nest is woven from strands of grasses and other vegetation, and sited on or close to the ground. It lays a clutch of two or three, occasionally four, eggs. The fledging period is about 20 days.
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