The black-billed nightingale-thrush (''Catharus gracilirostris'') is a small

thrush ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

endemic to the highlands of

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and western

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. Its position in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Catharus'' is somewhat equivocal, but it is apparently closer to the

hermit thrush The hermit thrush (''Catharus guttatus'') is a medium-sized North American thrush. It is not very closely related to the other North American migrant species of ''Catharus'', but rather to the Mexican russet nightingale-thrush. The specific na ...

than to the other nightingale-thrushes except the russet nightingale-thrush and/or the ruddy-capped nightingale-thrush (Winker & Pruett, 2006). It is found in the undergrowth of wet mountain oak forests and second growth, typically from above 1350 m altitude to patches of scrubbery beyond the timberline. The nest is a bulky lined cup constructed 1–5 m high in a scrub or small tree, and the typical clutch is 2 brown-blotched greenish-blue eggs. This small species is in length and weighs . The adult has olive- brown upperparts, a grey crown, paler grey underparts, becoming whitish on the belly, and an olive breast band. Its bill is black. The juvenile is darker on the head and underparts, has a brown breast band, and the belly is marked with brown. The birds in the Chiriqui mountains of western Panama are slightly more rufous above and paler below than the Costa Rican population, and are sometimes considered as a subspecies, ''C. g. accentor''. The black-billed nightingale-thrush will normally forage low in vegetation or on the forest floor, alone on in pairs, progressing in hops and dashes with frequent stops. It turns leaf litter in typical thrush fashion seeking

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...

s and

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s, and also eats many small fruits. Despite its habitat, this species is tame and often confiding. The black-billed nightingale-thrush's song is up to three flute-like tones followed by a jumbled trill, and the call is a high thin ''seet''.

References

*Clement, Peter & Hathaway, Ren (2000): ''Thrushes''.

Christopher Helm Christopher Alexander Roger Helm (born Dundee, 1 February 1937 – 20 January 2007) was a Scottish book publisher, notably of ornithology related titles, including the '' Helm Identification Guides''. Born in Dundee, he was raised in Forfar ...

, London. *Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander Frank (1989): ''A guide to the birds of Costa Rica''. Comistock, Ithaca. *Winker, Kevin & Pruett, Christin L. (2006): Seasonal migration, speciation, and morphological convergence in the avian genus ''Catharus'' (Turdidae). ''

Auk An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...

'' 123(4): 1052–1068. rticle in English with Spanish abstract DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123 052:SMSAMC.0.CO;
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q903611 black-billed nightingale-thrush Birds of the Talamancan montane forests black-billed nightingale-thrush black-billed nightingale-thrush