Sooty Shrikethrush

Colluricincla tenebrosa

A little-known, medium-sized bird of mid-montane forest thickets. Overall deep, sooty-brown color. Perches for long periods, scanning for insects. Skulking and difficult to see. Similar to Black Pitohui, and somewhere between the color of the black male and brown female, but Sooty Shrikethrush is smaller. Similar size various species of the Little Shrike-Thrush complex, but darker and found at higher elevation. Voice is little known, but apparently gives a loud, metallic alarm call.

Taxonomy

The sooty shrikethrush was formerly known as Colluricincla umbrina (Reichenow, 1915), as the name Rectes tenebrosus Hartlaub &amp; Finsch, 1868 (the morningbird) has priority over Pachycephala tenebrosa Rothschild, 1911 (the sooty shrikethrush) when the two species are placed in the same genus; with the transfer of the morningbird from the genus Colluricincla to Pachycephala in 2013, the sooty shrikethrush reverted from umbrina to the older name tenebrosa. Alternate names for the sooty shrikethrush include the obscure shrike-thrush, sooty robin-whistler and sooty whistler.<p>Two subspecies are recognized:

Scientific name
Colluricincla tenebrosa
Authority
(Rothschild, 1911)
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Pachycephalidae
Genus
Colluricincla

Range and habitat

Migration
Resident species

Conservation

Population trend
stable

Photos

Distribution

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