Japanese Thrush male adult - video

Seen last tuesday in the Botanical Garden.

Thrush headache

Hi all,

I always thought that the Japanese Thrush male adult was ONLY like this (and therefore always thought that its illustration in the Robson had been a little bit botched !) :

with a strong contrast head - mantle/wings

… until I saw this stunning bird 2 days ago in the Botanical Garden :

I told myself : woaah, so nice bird ! An adult male, exactly like the illustration of the Robson ! Ok, but all my contrasted head - mantle males of before, how should I call them now ?

- In the Robson (edition 2006), there's absolutely nothing about this pattern (both plates and texts). Very strange.

- In the Brazil (thanks Florian !), there’s an illustration of this kind of plumage with the legend: 1st winter male.

Not convinced at all, I search on Internet and found something very interesting on OrientalBirdImages, especially the pics of Jonathan Martinez, a French birder who’s living in China, in the Hunan province. He took pics at mid-June 2010 of juveniles, females and males (http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=2464&Bird_Image_ID=44540&Bird_Family_ID=&p=6), in a Japanese Thrushes breeding population. Today, I send him an email to have confirmation that those males were adults and even breeding ones.

He answered this (sorry, in french, please use Google traduction) :
« Pour tout t'avouer, ces thrushes m'ont également laissé perplexe. J'ai une bonne population nicheuse dans le Hunan en Chine et je n'ai pas encore vu un seul mâle nicheur qui ait un pattern classique comme décrit dans de nombreux guides, sans fort contraste manteau-tête, tout les mâles que j'ai pu observer sont identiques à ceux de mes photos. J'en viens à me demander si les oiseaux qui nichent en Chine ne serait pas différents de ceux qui nichent au Japon, j'ai trouvé très peu de choses dans la littérature mais n'ai pas eu encore trop le temps d'approfondir, dans tout les cas il y a quelque chose d'étrange, et je n'ai rien trouvé qui mentionne que la population qui niche dans le centre de la Chine soit une sous-espèce différente. A mon avis il y a matière à creuser».

He wrote, I resume, that among the 10 pairs he have observed over there, he have never seen males without strong contrast head-mantle like described in the majority of the identification guides. All its pics definitely show adults breeding males !

So, different races of Japanese Thrush ? In my humble opinion, the very black males could come from North-Est Asia (Japan, Korea...). Have a look at the blogs of the Land of the Rising Sun birders.

Now, I want to show you a mysterious bird that I have observed last Tuesday in the Botanical Garden. That's a tricky one isn't it ? Look this grey-blue mantle/wings, the contrast head-mantle, the black breast, the bluish spots on the flanks... Why not a 1st winter male Japanese Thrush ?
Thoughts/suggestions/confirmation welcome !

More thrushes

Morning visit to the botanical gardens:

Japanese Thrush 10 + (1st winter m and f, adult f)
Grey-backed Thrush 2 (?) 1st winter f
Eyebrowed Thrush 1 f
Siberian Thrush 1 f
Scaly Trush 1

Simon and Florian

Black-breasted Thrush male adult

Video made Tuesday 16th November at the Botanical Garden.

Please have a look at the last post of Simon (yesterday) , I sent many pictures there.

Grey-backed Thrush female adult

Video made Tuesday 16th November at the Botanical Garden.

Some great thrushes in the botanical gardens

This morning there were at least 20 thrushes in the botanical gardens. Since I was in a rush I concentrated on identifying the easy ones:
Japanese Thrush adult male 3
Japanese Thrush adult female 2
Japanese Thrush 1st winter male 4
Black-breasted Thrush adult female 1
Chinese Blackbird 2 (male and female)

I left all the 1st winter females....

Florian then visited shortly afterwards and found an adult male Black-breasted Thrush!

Simon

• At noon there, I saw also :

Grey-backed Thrush female adult 1
Grey-backed Thrush 1st winter 1-2
Eyebrowed Thrush male adult 1
Siberian Thrush 1 (without tail !)
Orange-headed Thrush 1
Rufous-tailed Robin 1

Videos will follow !

Sebastien

Eyebrowed Thrush male (the shiest of all the Thrushes there)

Siberian Thrush... with a little problem

Grey-backed Thrush female. Compared to the Black-breasted female : brownish bill, slightly marked on breast, paler brown-olive tinged upperparts (Robson).

Grey-backed Thrush female (in the background/no spots on the rufous flanks, slight streeks on breast) and - I suppose - a Grey-backed Thrush 1st winter

This supposed Grey-backed Thrush 1st winter : flanks largely orange with spots, heavily marked on breast than adult female.

Black-breasted Thrush male adult