Pied Thrush
Geokichla wardii
Slender, ground-dwelling thrush. Male is breathtakingly decked out in black and white. Female is not as eye-catching, but still distinctive with a white eyebrow, scaled underparts, and long yellow bill. Breeds in damp, well-shaded foothill forests in the central Himalayas and winters in dense forests, forest edge, and overgrown plantations in Sri Lanka.
Identification
Males of this 22 cm (8.7 in) thrush are conspicuously black and white. Mostly black on the upper parts it has a long white supercilium, and white tips to the wing coverts, tertials, rump and tail. The underparts are white with black flank spots the bill and legs are yellow. Females and young birds have the same basic pattern, but the black is replaced by dark brown, and the white by light brown. The markings on the underside are scalier. The third primary is the longest followed by the fourth with the second and fifth being nearly equal in length. The first primary is reduced.<p>The bill is not as strongly curved as that of the dark-sided thrush or the long-billed thrush and the female lacks the prominent pale cheek spot of the similar looking female Siberian thrush.<p>The binomial commemorates Samuel Neville Ward (1813–1897), a British colonial administrator in India from 1832 to 1863. Jerdon and Charles Darwin corresponded with S.N. Ward who worked in the Madras Civil Service, posted for sometime at Sirsi and was known for his natural history studies and artistic talent.<p>Thomas C. Jerdon who first obtained a specimen of the species from Ward notes:<p>This Pied Blackbird is spread, but very sparingly, through the Himalayas, and during the winter in the plains of India. I first procured it, through Mr. Ward, from the foot of the Neilgherries, and afterwards obtained two specimens at Nellore in the Carnatic.<p>The species was variously placed in the past and for a long time in the genus Zoothera along with many other thrushes but molecular phylogenetic studies in 2008 clarified the phylogeny and the requirements for monophyly of the genera led to the older genus Geokichla being resurrected. The genus Zoothera now contains species that are not strongly sexually dimorphic unlike Geokichla. The pied thrush's closest relative is the Siberian thrush Geokichla sibirica.
Taxonomy
Genus: Geokichla; Family: Turdidae; Order: Passeriformes.
- Scientific name
- Geokichla wardii
- Authority
- (Blyth, 1843)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Turdidae
- Genus
- Geokichla
Range and habitat
The summer breeding range is from western Himachal Pradesh in the Himalayas east at least until central Nepal. Records from further east such as Sikkim have been questioned by Rasmussen and Anderton (2005). The pied thrush is migratory, wintering mainly in Sri Lanka, with smaller numbers in the hills of south India. During passage, they may be preyed on by crows.<p>Although rare, they are locally and seasonally seen regularly at certain locations in winter such as at Victoria Park in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, where a number of birds gather by the stream early in the morning or in some hills stations in southern India such as Nandi Hills and Yercaud.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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