Costa Rica Photo Gallery

Birds and Wildlife at Rancho Naturalista

January 2009 -- Digiscoped images by Joseph Morlan

Clay-colored Thrush (Turdus grayi casius)
Photo taken in the rain. Raindrops evident on the feeding tray. This common and widespread bird of Central America is the National Bird of Costa Rica. Geographic variation is slight, but six races recognized. T. g. casius breeds from Costa Rica south. It has more buff on the belly and especially the underwing coverts compared to other populations. This species was formerly called Clay-colored Robin, but the name was changed to Clay-colored Thrush in the 49th supplement to the AOU checklist. This change applies to most of the neotropical thrushes in the genus Turdus, but not to the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) or several other species which inconsistently retain the surname "Robin." Recent genetic data show T. grayi to be closely related to Spectacled Thrush (T. nudigenis) of Northern South America and Unicolored Thrush (T. haplochrous) of Bolivia. All three share drab brown plumage and yellowish bill color.
Joseph Morlan