The Sulawesi thrush (''Turdus turdoides'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird in the thrush family,

Turdidae The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flyca ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the island of

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

in Indonesia, where it inhabits evergreen

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

s at altitudes of . Although it has a limited range and is not a common bird, the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed it as being a "

least-concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

Taxonomy

The Sulawesi thrush was formally described in 1896 by the German ornithologist

Ernst Hartert Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist. Life and career Hartert was born in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrat ...

based on specimens collected at altitude and above near

Bantaeng Bantaeng Regency (''Kabupaten Bantaeng''; ) is a regency of South Sulawesi Province in Indonesia. It covers an area of 395.83 km2 and had a population of 176,984 at the 2010 Census,Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. rising to 196,716 at the 2020 ...

in southern

, Indonesia. Hartert introduced a new

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Cataponera'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Cataponera turdoides''. The taxonomic placement of this species remained uncertain since its description, with some authorities classifying it with the laughingthrushes (family Leiotrichidae), while others classified with the true

thrushes The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flycat ...

(family Turdidae). Since the 2000s, it was generally placed in the monotypic genus ''Cataponera'' within the Turdidae, on morphological grounds. However, prior to a 2022 study, it was not yet placed phylogenetically. The study found the Sulawesi thrush to actually represent a highly divergent member of the genus ''

Turdus ''Turdus'' is a genus of medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the wider thrush family, Turdidae. The genus name ''Turdus'' is Latin for 'thrush'. Most of the species are called thrushes; the term thrush is also used for man ...

'', belonging in a clade comprising primarily migratory

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

thrushes, but with no close relatives. The

International Ornithological Congress International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

has followed the results of this study.

Description

The Sulawesi thrush is a medium-sized species with a long beak, short rounded wings and robust legs. The head and upper parts are a dark olive brown and the underparts are somewhat paler, sometimes with a gingery or reddish tinge to the under-tail coverts. There is a distinctive black

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

above the eye.

Distribution

The Sulawesi thrush is

to the island of

in Indonesia. Its habitat is evergreen montane forest and moss-forest and its altitudinal range lies between . Four subspecies are recognised; ''T. t. abditiva'' from the northern part of the island; ''T. t. tenebrosa'' from the southern part; ''T. t. turdoides'' from southwestern Sulawesi and ''T. t. heinrichi'' from the southeast. It is not present in the central part of the island.

Ecology

The Sulawesi thrush is a shy bird that is seldom seen and has been little studied. The diet consists of fruits and invertebrates and it forages in the middle and lower storeys of the canopy in evergreen montane forests, and on the ground beneath the trees. In behaviour and appearance it resembles thrushes in the

'', but it has other behaviours which are similar to those of the

Old World babbler The Old World babblers or Timaliidae, are a family (biology), family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft, fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the g ...

s (Timaliidae), and the laughing thrushes (''Garrulax'').

Status

The Sulawesi thrush has a somewhat restricted range and is a generally uncommon bird. The population is thought to be declining slowly but not at such a rate as to make it vulnerable, and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q645591 Turdus Birds described in 1896 Endemic birds of Sulawesi Taxonomy articles created by Polbot