Appearance:

Small thrush with rufous flanks, strong white supercilium and whitish moustache stripe. Upperparts evenly brown, underparts white with dark spots on chest and sides. Underwing coverts rufous. Fairly compact build, with slightly more pointed wings and shorter tail than Song Thrush. Juveniles less brightly coloured, with buff spots on upperparts. Behaviour less secretive than Song Thrush.

Sound:

Song delivered in two parts. First a simple, melodic phrase of 3 - 6 notes, usually followed by a more silent, indistinct, fast and less melodic, chattering sequence. First part highly variable from place to place, but constant in individuals. Often causes confusion when a new dialect is heard at a distance, since only the first part is far-reaching, and the diagnostic two-part structure gets lost. Contact call a thin, drawn and sharp "sreee". Often heard at night during migration. Alarm call harder, dryer and more raucous than other thrushes.

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Male with brown back, pinkish white underparts and a bluish grey head with a black eye mask. Female more dull with barred underparts. Juvenile like female, but upperparts also barred . Tail brown with white edges in all plumages. Females and juveniles easily confused with other southern/eastern or vagrant shrikes like; Brown Shrike, Isabelline Shrike, Woodchat Shrike and Turkestan Shrike. Differs from those in white sides of tail, barred rump, mantle and scapulars, scaly underparts and dark or yellowish base of bill (not pink).

Sound:

Call a hard "check check" (like striking two rocks together), and a variable nasal "twee" Song surprisingly varied with many expert imitations of small passerines, interwoven with bell-like ringing and dry chirping sounds. May be confusing and hard to identify if bird not seen. Song not very loud, but phrases can be very long.

Alarm call, song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC