Greater Thornbird
Phacellodomus ruber
Large and bulky thornbird with a long tail, conspicuous yellow eyes, and a whitish throat. Cinnamon above and buff below. Found in woodland and scrubby areas near water, where it builds huge stick nests. The song is very loud and explosive and is usually delivered as a duet.
Identification
The greater thornbird is 19 to 21 cm (7.5 to 8.3 in) long and weighs about 35 to 51 g (1.2 to 1.8 oz). It is heaviest and reddest thornbird. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly rufescent brown to grayish brown face with a paler supercilium and ear coverts and a whitish malar area. Their crown is reddish chestnut with pale streaks, their back rich reddish brown to olive-brown that sometimes becomes chesntut on the lower back, their rump a lighter rufescent brown, and their uppertail coverts chestnut. Their wings are a nearly uniform rufous-chestnut and their tail reddish chestnut. Their throat is whitish, their breast pale with a light brownish tinge, their belly whitish, and their undertail coverts light rufescent brown. Their iris is light yellow to orange, their maxilla blackish to dark grayish horn, their mandible pale gray to grayish green, and their legs and feet gray to olive. Juveniles have a less defined crown patch than adults and brownish mottling on their breast.
Taxonomy
The greater thornbird is monotypic. It and the freckle-breasted thornbird (P. striaticollis) are sister species.
- Scientific name
- Phacellodomus ruber
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1817)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Phacellodomus
Range and habitat
The greater thornbird is found in north-central and eastern Bolivia, from Bolivia east in Brazil to western Pernambuco and Bahia and south into Rio Grande do Sul, through central Paraguay into northern Argentina as far as Corrientes Province, and into western Uruguay. The species inhabits a variety of landscapes, almost always near water. These include thickets along watercourses, gallery forest, the borders of marshes, and scrublands. In elevation it mosty occurs between 300 and 1,100 m (1,000 and 3,600 ft) but locally reaches 1,400 m (4,600 ft) in Bolivia.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The greater thornbird is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The greater thornbird feeds on a wide variety of arthropods. It usually forages in pairs. It captures prey by gleaning from the ground or from vegetation as in the forest's understorey.<p>The greater thornbird breeds during the austral spring and summer, roughly September to January or beyond. It makes a cone-shaped nest of thorny twigs and branches that can be about 60 cm (2 ft) high and 50 cm (2 ft) wide at its base, and lines an interior chamber with soft plant material and feathers. It hangs the nest from a tree or shrub branch, usually 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft) above the ground, and often over water. The usual clutch size is three to four eggs with rarely a fifth. The incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.<p>The greater thornbird's song is a "series of up to 20 loud, sharp, resounding notes, starting very high and explosive, thereafter slightly accelerating and gradually descending". Rendered in words it is "poo tew tew tew too too tootootoochoochew". Pairs often sing in duet. Its calls include a "loud, high 'djeub-djeb-djebdjed' " and "sharp 'check check' and 'chweet'.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Ammospiza leconteii
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Spotted Sandgrouse
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A medium-sized pallid and delicately-patterned sandgrouse. Pale and sandy overall. Note male’s silver-gray eyebrow and orange cheek and throat. Female has a paler version of the male’s pattern, as well as a speckled nape and chest. Lacks breast bands, unlike Pin-tailed and Black-bellied Sandgrouse. Very similar to Crowned Sandgrouse, but note the present species’ tail filaments and different facial pattern. Note the strong contrast in two-toned underwings when in flight. Flight call is a characteristic “Waka! Waka!” Favors sandy or stony desert plains where it breeds on the ground. Congregates to drink in waterholes in the morning, often flying back and forth over long distances in large flocks.
Burmese Nuthatch
Sitta neglecta
Gray with a slender black mask and warm underparts. Male has white extending from the throat onto the cheeks, and averages darker below than the female, which also lacks the male’s white cheek patch. Very similar to Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch, but overlap is minimal. Inhabits dry broadlaef and pine forests in lowland and foothill areas. Creeps about on tree trunks, often in small bands or with other species. Calls include upslurred trills, harsh rattles, and a ringing, repeated “jweeyeh.”
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