The Izu thrush or Izu Islands thrush (''Turdus celaenops'') is a bird of the thrush family native to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Behavior

Feeding

Izu thrushes eat small animals, such as earthworms and insects, and fruits, like

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

or mullberries.

Breeding

The Izu Thrush's breeding season is March to July. During the first half of this season, the male will sing at dawn, but will, during the second half, sing throughout the day. One source described their song as 'kyurrr, chotts' and their call as 'tweet' or 'chat, chat, chat". They build their nests in trees about half a metre from the ground. They use soil to bind the materials, such as grass and moss, together. While the clutch can have as many as five or as few as two eggs, most clutches are of three to four eggs. The eggs are blue with brown spots and are roughly long. Both parents look after the chicks.

Predation of nests

Since the introduction of weasels, the fledgling rate has significantly decreased.

Description

The Izu thrush is about long. Their back and tails are black and they have a yellow eye-ring and bill, brown wings, and a rust-red chest. The males have darker plumage than that of the females.

Distribution

The Izu thrush is an endemic bird of

. Most are on the

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ōsh ...

. On Izu Ōshima, Miyakejima and

Mikurajima is an inhabited volcanic Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Izu Shotō'',"''Japan Encyclopedia,'' p. 412. The island is administered by Tōkyō Metropolis and is located approximately south of Tokyo a ...

they sing two syllables. The song of the population of Hachijojima south sounds entirely different with one syllable. On their last island of the chain Aogashima they have more syllables. Some less densely populated are on the

Tokara Islands The is an archipelago in the Nansei Islands, and are part of the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. The chain consists of twelve small islands located between Yakushima and Amami-Oshima. The islands have a total ...

Yakushima is one of the Ōsumi Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, has a population of 13,178. It is accessible by hydrofoil ferry, car ferry, or by air to Yakushima Airport. Administratively, the island consists of the town ...

, Kuchinoshima, Nakanoshima, Tairajima, Akusekijima and Takarajima. On Nakanoshima the song is composed of more syllables. In addition, there are wintering records from Shizuoka, Chiba, Mie and Wakayama Prefectures.

Conservation

The Izu thrush is described as a vulnerable species by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

. There are between 2,500 and 9,999 mature individuals and the population is decreasing, though it is not severely fragmented. The amount and/or quality of their habitat is decreasing. They are threatened by volcanoes, roads, railroads, wood plantations, tourism areas, and both native and invasive species and diseases.

References

External links

Izu Thrush
entry at Avibase Birds described in 1887 Endemic birds of Japan Birds of the Ryukyu Islands Izu Islands Turdus {{Turdidae-stub