The scaly thrush (''Zoothera dauma'') is a member of the

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 ...

family Turdidae.

Distribution and habitat

It breeds in wet

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...

ous

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces ...

, mainly in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over ...

through

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Description

The sexes are similar, 27–31 cm long, with black scaling on a paler white or yellowish background. The most striking identification feature in flight is the black band on the white underwings, a feature shared with Siberian thrush. The male has a song which is a loud, far-carrying mechanical whistle, with 5-10 second pauses between each one second long phrase ''twee...tuuu....tuuu....tuuu''. GeocichlaHorsfieldiKeulemans

Taxonomy

There are several races which are now often split into a varying number of separate species. ''Z. aurea'' ( White's thrush), including the questionable subspecies ''Z. a. toratugumi'', is the migratory Siberian and north-east Asian form. ''Z. neilgherriensis'' (

Nilgiri thrush The Nilgiri thrush (''Zoothera neilgherriensis'') is a member of the 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 se ...

) is resident in the hills of southwest

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. ''Z. imbricata'' (

Sri Lanka thrush The Sri Lanka thrush or Sri Lanka scaly thrush (''Zoothera imbricata'') is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. This bird is a non-migratory resident breeder found in south western rainforests of the island of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ...

) is endemic to the hills of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and is particularly distinctive, being smaller, long-billed and

rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish- red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a di ...

below. ''Z. d. dauma'' (scaly thrush) breeds in the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

and migrates to the foothills in winter. ''Z. d. horsfieldi'' (Horsfield's thrush) is resident in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

on the islands of Sumatra,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

Lombok Lombok is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It forms part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is ...

and

Sumbawa Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. Along with Lombok, it forms the province of West Nusa Tenggara, but there ...

. ''Z. major'' (

Amami thrush The Amami thrush (''Zoothera major'') is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It is endemic to the islands of Amami Ōshima and Kakeroma island in the northern Nansei Islands of Japan. Description This large, heavily patterned thrush is sim ...

) is restricted to the

Amami Islands The The name ''Amami-guntō'' was standardized on February 15, 2010. Prior to that, another name, ''Amami shotō'' (奄美諸島), was also used. is an archipelago in the Satsunan Islands, which is part of the Ryukyu Islands, and is southwest o ...

in Japan and is now considered a distinct species. The taxonomy of this group is still in flux. Some of these subspecies are very similar and the identity of some populations, such as those on

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, is uncertain. The fawn-breasted thrush (''Z. machiki'') of Indonesia and the

Bassian thrush The Bassian thrush (''Zoothera lunulata''), also known as the olive-tailed thrush, is a medium-sized mostly insectivorous thrush found from northern Queensland to southeastern Australia; it also occurs in Tasmania, on some larger islands of Bass ...

(''Z. lunulata'') and russet-tailed thrush (''Z. heinei'') of Australia were also included in ''Z. dauma'' in the past.

Behaviour

The scaly thrush is very secretive, preferring dense cover. It nests in trees, laying three or four dull green

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

in a neat

cup nest A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American robin or Eurasian b ...

. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of

insects 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 pairs ...

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. ...

s and berries.

References

* Brazil, Mark (2009) ''Birds of East Asia'', Christopher Helm, London. * Collar, N. J. (2004
Species limits in some Indonesian thrushes
''Forktail'', 20: 71–87. * Internet Bird Collection
Common Scaly Thrush (''Zoothera dauma'')
Retrieved 10 January 2010. * ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, * ''Thrushes'' by Clement and Hathaway,

External links

caught at the birdringgingstation at

Schiermonnikoog Schiermonnikoog (; fry, ) is an island, a municipality and national park in the Northern Netherlands. Schiermonnikoog is one of the West Frisian Islands, and is part of the province of Friesland. It is situated between the islands of Ameland an ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q695723 scaly thrush Birds of Central China Birds of Myanmar Birds of Laos Birds of Thailand Birds of Vietnam Birds of Yunnan Birds of the Himalayas scaly thrush scaly thrush